Jonathan Neame, the chief executive of Kent brewer Shepherd Neame, is urging people to support their local pubs as they struggle to survive in the harsh economic conditions.

He describes the Government’s 2.5 per cent increase on alcohol duty to cover the drop in VAT as a piece of "economic nonsense" and reckons it is the latest salvo aimed at the licensed trade.

Mr Neame said: "If you care about your local and if you care about the family running it, get down there and support them and tell this government that what they are doing is fundamentally wrong."

He hit out following Chancellor Alistair Darling’s pre-budget report on Monday, aimed at stimulating the economy.

But Mr Neame branded the report "vindictive, futile and deeply ignorant", adding that it appeared as though the Government was trying to wipe out the industry, which employs around one million people nationally.

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