Kent brewery Shepherd Neame has recorded its first profits fall in 30 years.

The Faversham-based company blamed exceptional items and a 45 per cent increase in costs.

Sheps reported 12 month sales up 1.7 per cent to a record £101.7m but its first profits dip - down 13.3 per cent to £9.1m - in 30 years.

Chief executive Jonathan Neame has called on the Government to halt its “stupid” policy of tax rises on beer to stem the tide of pub closures.

He said the Chancellor should abandon plans to put in a duty escalator. This would cause rates to rise above the rate of inflation over the next five years.

The problem of binge drinking, said Mr Neame, was wrongly associated with pubs. It was time the Government thought differently about a vital community resource.

“They increasingly see pubs as a social problem on the one hand and a tax collection point on the other,” he said.

“But they are neither. They are a vital community centre and small business, vital to the rural economy, vital to communities.”

Duty increases had more serious impact on rural pubs, which were already finding it more difficult to attract customers faced by higher petrol bills.

“Unles the Government changes its attitude, I fear that the rate of closure - which is 36 a week nationally - will accelerate.”

He accepted that huge demands on taxpayers’ cash, such as the £500bn bailout of British banks, increased pressure on the Government to raise taxes.

But Mr Neame warned that the Government would lose out because higher taxes would force customers to switch consumption from the pub, where VAT and employment taxes were raised, into the home where there was less tax revenue.

“It’s a really stupid economic policy.”

The Government should be securing the future of the million pub workers. Beer consumption had fallen to its lowest level since 1850 and beer was the “least sensible” product to tax.

But Mr Neame said he was reasonably upbeat about the future.

“The coming year is going to be outstandingly difficult for anyone running a business,” he said. “The rules of the game have changed.

“But I do think the long-term trends still favour good quality pubs, good community pubs, good food pubs and our type of beer. If anyone is going to thrive in this market, Shepherd Neame is in a good position.”