Beer in Britain's pubs just got cheaper, thanks to changes in the alcohol tax

A pint of beer is poured at Pressure Drop Brewery, in north London, in 2022. Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

A pint of beer is poured at Pressure Drop Brewery, in north London, in 2022.

Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

LONDON — It's been a dreary summer in the U.K., which has seen some of the rainiest summer months on record, all while the country continues to deal with the highest inflation in Western Europe. Almost everything — from food to fuel to rent — is getting more expensive.

One thing has just got a little bit cheaper, though.

The U.K. government announced last week what it called Alcoholic beverages will now be taxed simply based .

That means drinks having alcohol by volume (ABV) levels below 3.5% will be taxed at a lower rate than drinks with ABV over 8.5%.

. So a pint could be up to 11 pence — or 14 cents — cheaper, if the pubs pass this saving on to customers.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak serves a pint of stout that he poured during a visit to the Great British Beer Festival on Aug. 1, in London. He was heckled by a pub owner who was unhappy about the rise in duty for beverages with higher alcohol content. WPA Pool/Getty Images hide caption

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Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak serves a pint of stout that he poured during a visit to the Great British Beer Festival on Aug. 1, in London. He was heckled by a pub owner who was unhappy about the rise in duty for beverages with higher alcohol content.

WPA Pool/Getty Images

The government has dubbed this its "Brexit Pubs Guarantee" — an acknowledgment of the difficulties pubs are facing. Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt announced the changes with a visit to a local. "Pubs have been facing a lot of competition from supermarkets and we want to make sure they remain competitive," he said in a video. He promised that the

Britain has always set its own alcohol taxes, so this move is less likely about Brexit and more likely about a general election next year, some analysts say. (Also, as skeptics pointed out , beer already costs less in a number of European Union countries than in the U.K.)

, while the rise in the cost of living keeps customers away. The government hopes the changes will win over voters and offer a much-needed boost to the country's pub industry, which has seen near-record numbers of businesses closing.

William Robinson, managing director of Robinson Brewery, which operates 250 pubs, welcomed the difference in draft beer duty between pubs and supermarkets.

But not everyone is toasting the new rules.

When Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — who himself doesn't drink alcohol — visited a beer festival to promote the changes last week, unhappy with the rise in duty on higher-alcohol beverages.

Claer Barrett, consumer editor at the , says that stronger wines and spirits will cost more. One of her own favorite tipples, an Argentinian Malbec, with alcohol content of 14% or 15%, will certainly become more expensive. Under the new law, she says, the tax "could go up by nearly a pound — or about $1.27."

Barrett says the changes will amount to a tax hike for a lot of drinks, and most consumers understand this. "I don't think, however much they've had to drink, the British public are that stupid," she says. "We all know that the tax screw is being twisted."

The spirits industry has also raised concerns about what the changes will mean for it. The Scotch Whisky Association has described the duty increase for spirits as a

For Lewis Munro, a bartender from London, the drop in price is nowhere near enough when the average pint in London costs six or seven pounds ($7.65 or 8.92). He says he will keep going to his local in the outskirts of the city — which he calls a "pretty scummy, rundown pub" — where he can get a pint for around half that price, at three pounds.The only thing better than a beer, he says, is a bargain.