Bureaucracy and Recession Claims Another Victim

19 June 2010

CDC Leisure, the company behind such popular Belfast venues as The Limelight, Spring & Airbrake, Katy Daly's and Auntie Annie's has gone into administration.

Following the news, Chief Executive of Pubs of Ulster Colin Neill said; "This is very unfortunate news coming from a pub group that has consistently offered something fresh and new to night life and tourism offer of Belfast. The past 18 months has been a particularly difficult time for the pub trade and unfortunately such news is representative of what is happening in the industry. Factors such as reduced margins, increased overheads, increased taxation and further changes in regulation have made it extremely difficult for pubs to survive, never mind trade successfully. Added to by the growing pressure from banks as they force people to sell their family silver so that they can replace theirs! Plus the economic downturn and below cost supermarket pricing, the very survival of many pubs is now in serious jeopardy. With over 34,000 people employed in the industry, urgent action needs to be taken by both the Northern Ireland Assembly and the UK Government. They must now stop treating the industry like a tax cash cow and review the policies which affect the Pub trade if we are to halt the decline and save the jobs. We now wait with nervous anticipation for the upcoming budget, the first from the new Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government, to see if action will be taken to protect and support the pubs as the responsible retailers and penalise the supermarkets who sell alcohol cheaper than water.�