Jacob Collier

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. She has been a real champion on these issues as chair of the all-party parliamentary beer group. I am a co-signatory to the letter to the Chancellor—we will await what he says tomorrow—and I did very much enjoy the Gower Gold that I sampled alongside my hon. Friend last month. There is no doubt that cask ale is a tradition of the kind that could be included in the inventory of living heritage. The reason it should be is because of the particular risk facing cask ale at the moment. Jonny Garrett of the Craft Beer Channel suggests that craft ale accounts for around 5% of beer sales annually, compared with around 50% in the mid-1990s. There are many reasons for that. Big brand lager provides significant competition at the bar, and the pub tie makes it difficult for smaller brewers to get their beers on sale in pubs across the country. I know that the Government have launched a review of the access to market rules, and I would welcome an update on that. Cask ale suffers when our pubs struggle, and declining footfall and rising bills force many pubs to concentrate resources on higher margin products, of which cask ale is not one. When footfall declines in pubs, so does the sale of cask ale—although we must remember that we have seen a recent growth in certain cask ale brands, largely where brewers have recognised the heritage value of their product and used that as a unique selling point. There are a growing number of successful brands, including Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, St Austell’s Tribute, Theakston’s, Boddingtons and Burton’s very own Bass, which is brewed at the Marston’s site. Samuel Allsopp’s brand has also been revived by Jamie Allsopp, most recently relaunching the famous Allsopp’s IPA. In my constituency, there are several successful independent breweries such as Burton Bridge, Tower, Outwoods, Roebuck, G3, Gates and the Uttoxeter Brewing Company. Some say that we may have reached the end of the road for large-scale cask ale brewing. However, the brands that I have listed show that there is a route to continued success for cask ale brewers, based on smaller-scale brewing dedicated to individual brands. The other path is decline and cask ale ceasing to exist. If we are to ensure that the right path is taken, certain steps need to be taken, which include, but are not limited to, formally recognising the production and serving of cask ale as living heritage. Doing so would not be unprecedented: this is the 10th anniversary of UNSECO adding beer culture in Belgium to its list of intangible cultural heritage. Including cask ale in the inventory would give it protection and recognition. Cask ale can be marketed as world-renowned heritage and become a staple treat for tourists visiting Britain—as we know, many sample the delights of cask ale anyway. Including cask ale would create incentives for private sector investment and efforts by local and central Government and those such as CAMRA and SIBA—the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates—which are preserving cask ale heritage. As my hon. Friend the Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) said, heritage status is just one step that needs to be taken. Further steps are required so that cask ale can continue to thrive commercially. These include the reforms to access to market, to make it easier for cask ale to appear in pubs. There is also beer duty. Hopefully, the Chancellor will increase draught relief tomorrow—I am sure we would all raise a glass to him. As the APPG on beer has highlighted, we should also consider whether to include brewing or hospitality as a whole in the industrial strategy and in industrial energy schemes. However, the status of intangible cultural heritage would be an important step. The serving and production of cask ale is uniquely British and is still alive today, centuries later. It is living history that deserves our protection; I look forward to the debate today.