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(Courtesy Jodie Kiss / Long Live The Local)
Jodie Kidd’s resume is exhaustive. In addition to being a major fashion model and television personality, she’s raced cars professionally.
But she also owns a pub in the UK and is actively advocating for their survival.
When Kidd, who owns The Half Moon pub in Kirdford, West Sussex, first started petitioning the UK government for a tax cut in 2018, three pubs a day were closing their doors for good.
As a pub-owner she’s experienced the difficulties that publicans have been facing firsthand, an already dire situation that has escalated dangerously in the wake of COVID-19.
And now the British model turned pub advocate has joined with Long Live Local in advocating for a cut the Beer Duty (read: tax) imposed on UK pubs and breweries.
“I first backed the Long Live The Local campaign in 2018, when pubs were already struggling to survive with three pubs closing every day, Kidd explained…
“The Government must act to help save pubs from the dire situation they face now. Following a year of lockdowns, severe trading restrictions and huge uncertainty, almost 2000 pubs closed their doors for good – that`s five local pubs every day– gone forever.”
“We must do everything we can to protect others from the same fate,” she contends…
And now, with UK pubs now in the midst of their third government mandated shutdown, things have gotten even more crucial. In 2020, 87 million pints were poured down the drain, a loss that cost UK pubs and brewers nearly £331million.
On average, £1 in every £3 spent in the pub already goes straight to the taxman in the United Kingdom, and Kidd is urging UK citizens to sign Long The Local’s petition calling for a desperately needed tax cut for local pubs and breweries…
“Almost half a million people have signed the petition and 250,000 have written to their MP urging them to cut Beer Duty to help local pubs and brewers said David Cunningham, program director of Long Live The Local. “Without support from Government, we’re at real risk of losing thousands more pubs from our villages, towns and cities”
A cut in Beer Duty will help pubs which are the backbone of local communities,” Jodie Kidd added. “Not only do they provide livelihoods but also a social and cultural hub that so many of us are deeply missing at the moment.”
To sign the petition, visit www.longlivethelocal.pub
