The UK’s biggest wine retailers are lobbying the government to block the upcoming alcohol duty rise, in a bid to reform the system “before it’s too late”.

Retailers including Majestic Wine, Laithwaites, Cambridge Wine Merchants are among the leading names in the sector trying to intervene before the new system is introduced on 1 February next year, according to The Guardian.

The alcohol duty freeze was extended in the Chancellor’s Spring Budget in March this year until February 2025, in a bid to give businesses time to adjust to the new alcohol duty system, which was announced under the previous Government in 2023.

The new alcohol duty tax is set to increase the number of tax bands for wine from one to 30, which will increase costs and complexity for retailers, according to campaigners.

Among other changes, the amount of duty paid will increase by 2p for every 0.1% rise in strength, a move retailers fear could increase costs.

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It is understood that Majestic and Cambridge Wine Merchants have emailed their customers to ask for support to scrap the new regulations by contacting their MP.

The email said: “Most concerningly for you, as discerning wine drinkers, the quality and choice of wine available for you to purchase is likely to be negatively impacted.”

“There is a genuine risk that the producers of your favourite wine will stop shipping it to the UK entirely, due to the additional administrative burden that will be involved.”

Majestic chief executive John Colley said that the removal of the alcohol duty freeze is likely to “hit small business”, including the UK’s 900 independent wine merchants and oversea importers.

Colley added: “This will restrict growth and threaten peoples’ livelihoods at a time when we should be doing everything we can to support our high streets.”