This year has seen a great deal of change for the Campaign and, as I reflect on the last 12 months and my first end of year message as your national chairman, I want to say a sincere thank you to every CAMRA member for your passion, dedication and support for our campaigning.
Absent friends
Before I cover our campaigning successes this year, I must pay tribute to two enduring stalwarts of the Campaign who we sadly lost before Christmas.
Tony Millns (pictured left) was our fifth national chairman. An early leading light in the Campaign, he recruited many of our most ardent campaigners and pioneered the beer festival concept as we know it today. An active member to the end, he most recently ensured that our achievements will live on through the Warwick University archiving project. He will be missed by so many, and our thoughts are with his wife Jill.
We have also said goodbye to Neil Kellett (pictured right), one of our earliest members and first auditor for our accounts. Neil was a larger-than-life character, a founder of the CAMRA Member’s Investment Club, and a lifelong campaigner for traditional beer styles across the world, which you can read more about in Roger Protz’s tribute here.
A new government in Westminster
The tough economic environment continues for both consumers and businesses. Our collective belts seem to be getting tighter and tighter, and this has been felt especially by the licensed trade.
This year came with the opportunity to lobby a new government and connect with hundreds of new MPs (pictured above). These relationships are vital, and forging new connections is challenging but rewarding. Our first drop-in event of this parliament was the most successful in recent memory, thanks to the efforts of branches and members to introduce new MPs to CAMRA during our General Election and Budget campaigns.
Ahead of the Budget we had two main asks, the first being a significant cut in tax on beer and cider sold on tap in pubs. Our second was for reform of the broken Business Rates system in England, with pubs paying more in rates than they represent in total business turnover – a grossly unfair situation.
In her Budget Statement, the chancellor announced that tax on draught beer and cider served in pubs, social clubs and taprooms will be reduced by 1.7 per cent.
While the media might say this boils down to a penny off a pint, we know that’s just not true. But it doesn’t mean we are not appreciative of the recognition for beer and brewing in an otherwise tough Budget for businesses. It’s a minimum expectation, and we will be campaigning – as you would expect – for more. There was also a promise to introducing a lower Business Rates multiplier for hospitality businesses in England from 2026/27. We will need to wait for the details to assess its efficacy and will push for it to include brewers and cider makers.
Taking the fight to the globals
The government also promised an investigation into independent breweries’ access to the pub market. Again, this is a first step from the government on this issue, and we will be keeping a close eye on the review, which we expect to be announced early next year. We are already in contact with the Department for Business and Trade, which is running the review, and will be meeting with them early in 2025 to outline our views on the scope of the review and potential solutions.
We want to see real advances for a trade which has been hung out to dry in recent years, and for independent brewers and cider makers who are squeezed off the bar by global companies with little interest in the preservation of community locals.
Under the status quo, consumers and independent producers suffer at the hands of big business – and that needs to change in 2025.
CAMRA Northern Ireland director Ruth Sloan (left) at Stormont with members of the legislative assembly
A better organised Campaign
But we’re not just fighting for the trade. We need to improve how we work as a Campaign, and for each and every member. Another change this year came in the form of the Regions Review. After a thorough and painstaking review of how our regions work for volunteers, recommendations were brought to the National Executive and are now being implemented. We have been listening to all the feedback about what this means for the branches affected and recognise the disruption and anxiety this has caused.
I have every confidence in the Regions Review Implementation Group and its ability to see this change through. We can already see the benefits of its actions, with more equal regions and a more balanced workload for volunteers. Plus, the recognition of Northern Ireland as a CAMRA region is a necessary and much welcomed step. Alongside Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland is deserving of its status as a standalone CAMRA region, and its unique circumstances and challenges in the trade require special attention and this move ensures we’re able to provide that support. My thanks go to everyone that contributed to the review – branches and the volunteers that have managed its outcomes.
Changes on the National Executive
The first couple of months as your national chairman have been both demanding and fulfilling, and I’m ready to go into 2025 to face whatever it might hold. My predecessor, Nik Antona (above), stepped down earlier this year, and I have much to thank him for. Nik was one of the first people I met in CAMRA when I went to my first branch meeting almost a decade ago and he’s been a friend ever since. His knowledge, skills and experience have been invaluable to me in the various roles I’ve had over the years and has given me a solid platform to step into this role.
