George Osborne pledges more support for pubs: Chancellor George Osborne has said support for the pub industry will not finish with the historic cut in beer duty - and the scrapping of the beer duty escalator. Speaking at a briefing at Marston’s brewery today, Osborne said he wants to help encourage more employment in the sector. He described the 1p reduction and axing of the beer duty escalator at this month’s Budget as “an important step forward but not the last word.” He said: “It’s not just the penny off we also cancelled the beer escalator but what I want to talk to the industry about is what we can do to help young people get employed in the industry, what we can do to help support British agriculture, which is where it all starts and what we can do to with the pub industry, which is where it all ends and the product is sold.” He refused to be drawn on an industry campaign for VAT in pubs to be cut. “We just had a Budget and I took the tax decisions on VAT and on duty that I thought were the right decisions but I am not going to start writing the next Budget. I think we got the balance right in the Budget and by specifically focusing the help on the beer industry, which had been under real pressure I think we were able to get the most bang for our buck. I want to congratulate Andrew Griffiths (Burton MP and Beer Group chairman) and other MPs who fought a really strong campaign and got their voice heard.”

JD Wetherspoon writes to auction house to express ‘concern’ over exaggerated trading information: JD Wetherspoon is writing to auction house Allsop to express its concern over marketing of a JD Wetherspoon freehold that exaggerates its trading figures. Allsop has claimed the Tally Ho in Finchley is one of JD Wetherspoon’s ‘best trading pubs in the Greater London area, producing approximately £35,000-£45,000 per week in turnover’. Allsop is seeking offers in excess of £2,370,000 for it. Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin saw the information in an edition of Propel last week and has instructed colleagues to write to Allsop pointing out that the information is wrong. “The premises is not one of our best trading pubs in the Greater London area,” a Wetherspoon source told Propel.