Stephanie Peacock

I was about to answer the right hon. Member’s question. Of course, that would be for the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and I will speak to Ministers directly following this debate. While this debate is not on that particular issue, I absolutely recognise that it is integral to the right hon. Member’s area and the surrounding area. I will speak to DEFRA Ministers directly. The right hon. Member and my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton West (Warinder Juss) rightly highlighted the closure of Banks’s brewery. Of course, that announcement comes alongside Molson Coors proposing the closure of Sharp’s brewery in Rock. Both companies have pointed to the decline in cask ale demand. I totally hear the points that the right hon. Member made. UK cask ale volumes have halved in less than 10 years. I think we heard a statistic from my hon. Friend the Member for Burton and Uttoxeter about cask ale sales accounting for 5% of the market today compared with 50% in the 1990s. We are seeing a decline, but there are some positive signs. Industry data reveals a 50% increase in young adults aged 18 to 25 regularly drinking cask ales in pubs. We want that renewed interest to grow, and we heard a number of examples of how we might do that, including the Hemel Old Town Beer festival mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (David Taylor), or the local festival that the shadow Minister mentioned—I wish him luck in judging the competition. Pubs and hospitality venues are essential social infrastructure. They combat loneliness, bring generations together and provide places to bring people together in our communities.