Cost of Living set to hurt many pubs in Pompey by the middle of Spring
The cost of living has been tough on homeowners, builders, taxi drivers and so on, but not many people think of the pub trade. One of the biggest trades in this county and is being hit heavily by the cost of living. Mr Barry Kewell who is the landlord at “The Northcote Hotel” said that “our utility prices have risen by some 40% and our products have increased in price”.
This is a growing theme around local pubs, causing a few such as “The Rutland Arms” to only have limited beer on tap due to the fact they cannot afford to continue purchasing barrels of the other beer. Barry also wanted to add that “our wages will rise in April”, meaning the pub would lose more money. Many people cannot afford to spend money in pubs with heating and electric bills so high, amongst other things.
Local pub worker Georgia Sanders who works at the Bold Forrester, says that “we have less customers because they cannot afford to go out anywhere near as much as they used to, so therefore our profit margins are lower”. However, despite this fact and the fact of wages increasing next month, she wanted to add “it’s a Greene King pub so it is a big company so it doesn’t effect us as such because they are able to cover the costs so we don’t have to worry about closing”. But for other smaller local owned pubs such as the Northcote, that is now a serious risk.