by business editor Trevor Sturgess

The government has been urged to deliver on lower beer taxes blamed for mass pub closures.

After Shepherd Neame, the 300-year old Faversham pub owner and brewer, bucked the trend with record sales and a 25 per cent profits rise, Jonathan Neame, chief executive, called on the Coalition to "deliver".

He said Sheps had stumped up a massive £42 million in taxes last year.

He called it a frustrating amount and blamed the last Labour Government for repeated hikes.

He was encouraged by assurances by the new government that it would look more favourably on the industry.

"But they've got to deliver on that now," he said.

"We want to see a fairer deal for beer. Thirteen years of the last Government were peculiarly bad for beer and for pubs which, without question, led to the closure of pubs across the country."

Some Sheps community pubs had suffered because of those policies, but Mr Neame said the company's investment in "better and bigger" pubs was paying off because they were doing well.

Sheps' beer sales went up by 4.8 per cent last year, against a background of declining beer sales nationally.

"I think the consumer is beginning to switch towards speciality beers like cask ale. Mainstream brands are where the volume declines are."

He warned that higher Vat and the public spending squeeze would affect already fragile consumer confidence.

"There is a lot of uncertainty and our business relies to a certain extent on people having confidence to go out."

But Sheps was in a good place. Kent and the south east were likely to perform better in the medium term than the rest of the country.

"We are a strong business, stronger than last year, stronger than the year before so the company will continue to do well."

Sheps announced that turnover rose by 5.4 per cent to £115.4m in the year to June 26. Pre-tax profit rose 25.5 per cent to £8.7m (2009 - £6.9m).

The company said it was benefiting from its multi-million pound investments in new pubs, bottling line and new computer systems. Sheps operates 365 pubs across Kent and the South East, of which 320 are tenanted or leased, and 45 managed.