30 October 2024
Bosses says Chancellor has broken commitment to back Scotch whisky industry
By Bill Heaney
There was little or no good news for the ordinary working people of West Dunbartonshire in the first Labour budget in 14 years.
Pleas for a change of mind in regard to the pensioners’ heating allowance and the two child cap on family allowances went unanswered.
The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) has said the Chancellor’s decision to further increase duty on Scotch Whisky has broken the Prime Minister’s commitment to ‘back Scotch producers to the hilt.’
West Dunbartonshire has nearly 2000 people working in the Scotch whisky industry mainly at the Chivas Brothers site at Kilmalid in Dumbarton and the Auchentoshan distillery in Dalmuir, Clydebank.
In her first Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an increase to alcohol duty, but cut duty on draught products in the on-trade – public houses and other bars – by 1.7%. Scotch Whisky and other spirits are excluded from this tax relief.
The SWA had called on the new Chancellor to take the opportunity to reverse the damage done by the 10.1% increase in August 2023. Instead, the damage done to the industry and to government revenue has been compounded by further increasing the tax burden on the sector, which is already the highest in the G7.
Spirits revenue fell by hundreds of millions of pounds as a result of the 10.1% duty increase last year, and the industry has warned that this further tax hike will not deliver the revenue Ministers have been promised but will hurt businesses, the hospitality sector and hard-pressed consumers.
Chief Executive of the SWA Mark Kent said: “This duty increase on Scotch Whisky is a hammer blow, runs counter to the Prime Minister’s commitment to ‘back Scotch producers to the hilt’ and increases the tax discrimination of Scotland’s national drink.
“On the back of the 10.1% duty increase last year, which led to a reduction in revenue for HM Treasury, this tax hike serves no economic purpose. It will damage the Scotch Whisky industry, the Scottish economy, and undermines Labour’s commitment to promote ‘Brand Scotland’.
The Chancellor has also increased the tax discrimination of spirits in the Treasury’s “warped duty system”, and with 70% of UK spirits produced in Scotland, much of it in West Dunbartonshire, that will do further damage to a key Scottish sector.
“The disastrous 10.1% duty hike last year has now been compounded. This further tax rise means the lessons have not been learned, and the Chancellor, pictured right, has chosen continuity with her predecessor, not change.
“We urged all MPs who support Scotch Whisky to vote against this duty hike and tax discrimination of Scotland’s national drink.”
Douglas McAllister, the recently elected Westminster MP for Dumbarton, has made it clear he is not prepared to comment to The Dumbarton Democrat.
One thing – apart from the increase in the minimum wage, which we reported onafter it was leaked at the weekend – that will please local working people is that the Chancellor announced that the Carer’s Allowance weekly earnings limit will increase to the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage from next April.
The rule change will enable people providing unpaid care to earn over £10,000 a year without seeing payments reduced by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for being over the threshold.
Ms Reeves told MPs: “Carer’s Allowance currently provides up to £81.90 per week to those with additional caring responsibilities. I can confirm that we are increasing the weekly earnings limit to the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage per week, the largest increase since Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976.”
A farmer looking after his sheep in Glen Fruin, West Dunbartonshire.
Meanwhile, responding to the Budget changes to Agricultural Property Relief, Scottish Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael MP said: “I fear that the Treasury does not realise the damage that this change to inheritance tax could do.
“As well as cutting deep into the heart of local, family-owned farms, it will deal a huge blow to all those small businesses that depend on them: from vets to agricultural merchants to local shops and post offices. The people most immediately at risk are tenant farmers as their landlords look at ways in which inheritance tax might be avoided.
“That is without mentioning the concerning decision to cut farm budgets in real terms, which will have knock-on effects across the UK and goes against the government’s stated aim of building up our food security. Labour may have inherited a legacy of farm budget mismanagement from the Tories, but it is their decision if they double down on the same mistakes.
“Liberal Democrats will fight tooth and nail to protect farms from these changes and continue to be a strong voice for rural Scotland.”
Top of page: The Chivas Brothers plant at Kilmalid in Dumbarton.
The budget is full of broken promises. All our thanks should go out to the Labour Party and especially Dougie McAllister MP.
Ah well, if there’s job losses across the Scotch whisky industry through tax increases what can one say.
Whisky is a huge export product that delivers a huge contribution to the UK’s balance of trade. Domestic considerations of course are no considerations for London Labour. Scotland a land of oil, gas, hydro power, wind energy, whiskey and so much more – and a country where folks live in fuel poverty.
But hey, there’s a war to be fought now. Brexit has wreaked its trade devastation. And the international trade deals that the UK was going to secure in its post Brexit Golden Age? Not materialised do I hear one say. Ah well just wait till Mr Trump levies swingeing trade tariffs.
Poor wee Scotland. That’s all one can say.