Around 28,000 public houses have closed in the United Kingdom since the 1970s. Stock photo: Gareth Fuller/PA

Around 28,000 public houses have closed in the United Kingdom since the 1970s as the sector faces a rates “ticking time bomb” that threatened its future, a new report has warned.

Research by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) found there were fewer than 50,000 pubs, with more beer now being drunk at home.

Camra called for greater support for pubs, saying they were under threat as never before.

Its annual Good Beer Guide reports that when Camra was formed in the early 1970s the UK had 75,000 pubs.

The new business rates revaluation introduced in 2017 is the latest “ticking time bomb” to devastate the sector, the campaign group said.

Some of the increases, due to be phased in over a five-year period, are described as “eye-watering”.

The Baum in Rochdale, Camra’s national Pub of the Year in 2012, will see its rateable value increased by 377%, while the Sandford Park Alehouse in Cheltenham, Pub of the Year in 2015, faces an increase of 181%.

Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz said: “The British pub is unique, rooted in our island’s history, dating from Roman and Saxon times.”

Belfast Telegraph