Many pub landlords will be raising a glass to the news that the beer duty escalator, which meant the price of beer in pubs rose at 2 per cent more than inflation every year, has finally been scrapped after hiking tax by 42 per cent since 2008.
In fact, the chancellor has gone further than this by dropping the cost of duty by a penny. This will certainly be regarded as good news by the industry which abjectly hated the tax.
