BEER bosses have blasted a rise in alcohol duty and warned it will cost jobs and close even more pubs across East Lancashire.

Chancellor George Osborne’s decision to press ahead with a duty escalator – set to add 5p to a pint – has been branded a double whammy after January’s VAT increase also hiked up prices.

David Grant, boss of Burnley-based Moorhouse’s, said the move would be ‘ruinous’ for Lancashire’s thriving brewery sector and could lead to yet more pubs closing.

And Rick Edwards, his counterpart at Thwaites in Blackburn, said the measure put jobs at risk.

Mr Osborne’s decision to keep alcohol duty unchanged means the duty escalator - inflation plus two per cent - came into effect last night.

But with inflation running at five per cent, bosses said it would hike up pint prices and amounted to a 30 per cent increase in the past few years alone.

Mr Grant said: “This is a kick in the teeth for the local brewing sector, one of the few British success stories of recent years.Local brewers create jobs and contribute to the local and wider British economy by using home-grown ingredients.

“Yet the current beer taxation regime is killing off our main route to market – the British pub.”

Mr Edwards said: “We have campaigned for the duty escalator to be rescinded because it is unhelpful to pubs.

“All this does is makes life more difficult for everyone.”

The change by Mr Osborne put more pubs and jobs ‘at risk’, added Mr Edwards.

The British Beer and Pub Association said the duty escalator rise allied to the 2.5 per cent VAT increase amounted to the ‘largest single-year beer tax increase ever’.

As well as Thwaites and Moorhouse’s, it is likely to hit smaller the scores of East Lancashire breweries, like Bowland in Bashall Eaves and Three B’s in Blackburn.