INCREASING beer duty in next week’s Budget would hit investment in brewing and pubs in the North West of more than £200million a year, Chancellor Philip Hammond has been warned.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance campaign group said since the automatic rise in the tax on ale was scrapped in 2013, brewers and pub chains had invested billions extra.

Its research shows that in 2016, the figure was £1.96bn, £800 m more than in 2013.

In the North West the industry, which includes Thwaites of Blackburn and Moorhouses in Burnley, invested more than £200 million.

John O’Connell, TPA chief executive, said: “The beer industry is massively over-taxed, and any further increases would scare off further investment as well as risking thousands of jobs.

“Further cuts to beer duty would see even more investment in an important industry.”