Fears pubs will suffer with new £4,500 tax

The landlord of two Black Country pubs has warned he could be driven out of town if his business is hit with a "late night opening" tax.

Dave Craddock, who runs the Plough and Harrow by Mary Stevens Park, Stourbridge and The Duke William in the town centre's Coventry Street, says licensees will struggle if plans to charge venues up to £4,500 a year for opening after midnight are given the go-ahead.

It follows an announcement of new powers under the proposed Government's Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, currently going through parliament.

They would give councils the authority to impose a levy on nightspots that open after midnight to help cover policing costs.

But Mr Craddock said pubs had got it tough enough already, with as little as 8p in the pound from the drinks they sell going into their pockets.

The rest — including 35 per cent in alcohol duty and 50 per cent in brewery charges — goes on overheads.

"I went to school here, live here and my first child is about to be born here," said 29-year-old Mr Craddock, of Corser Street, Oldswinford.

"I want to make my pubs, as well as the area in general, as nice as they can be.

"But new legislation allows local authorities to charge up to £4,500 a year for a licence for opening after midnight.

"And although both of my pubs close before midnight, there are occasions when I would want to open up for a customer's special occasion or other event, and I would still have to have the licence.

"When we are already paying so much, that extra £4,500 could well tip it over the edge and I would move to Shropshire, where there would be no point in having the extra local authority tax because there is not so much nightlife."

Deputy leader of Dudley Council, Councillor Les Jones, said: "When we see exactly what the law is we will have to make a judgement about how it might help us to manage the night-time economy.

"We will have to apply the law in a way that is in the public interest — it would not be a way of us saving money but of weighing up the benefits to the town."