Pub with queues out the door selling £3 pints — ‘people can’t afford to go out any more’

The £3 pint of beer seemed to be a thing of the past. Indeed, it’s not unusual to find them at twice that price in pubs up and down the country. But one publican is bringing them back and said he’s doing it because people can’t afford to regularly enjoy a few drinks anymore.

Jason Bales, 49, runs the new Tin Mill pub in the affluent Whitchurch area of Cardiff. He said: “People do not go to the pub anymore because it is too expensive. Most of my mates, when they’d finish work, we would all sit at the bar and have three or four pints before we would go home.

“That was when three or four pints were 12 quid. You have three or four pints now – thirty quid. If you do that five times a week that’s £150 of wages. You can’t afford to do it.”

The average price of a pint of draught lager in the UK is £4.83 in 2025, compared to £3.87 in May five years ago, according to latest figures from the Office of Data and National Statistics.

Jason had looked at other sites for a pub before choosing the Tin Mill but said the costs were too high, which meant his drinks prices would have had to be higher. He doesn’t sell food because the profit margins are “not where they used to be”.

“I looked at doing a lease (elsewhere) before I started here and I could not get away with charging under £6.50 a pint. That was just to make ends meet,” he added.

The cost to the customer is also behind the decision to not serve food. Jason said: “It is a lot less complicated. The cost of making food and buying the food and everything else – margins are not where they used to be.”

The Tin Mill is owned by Amber Taverns, who have 175 public houses across the UK. It operates on a volume-buying system. It opened its doors in December and caters to sports fans with multiple television screens showing a variety of fixtures.

The building has changed hands a number of times over the years and been run as a pub or bar with various names.

But the newest version has proved popular with queues out of the door on occasion, according to customers.

Amanda Guy, 54, and Robert Guy, 60, who live around a 10-to-15-minute drive from the Tin Mill, visited the pub for the first time after hearing positive reviews.

“We were all going to meet up here at Christmas, but it was so busy apparently, they said ‘you will not get in’,” said Mrs Guy.

“We could not believe how cheap the prices were.”

Mr Guy recalled a time when he used to pay 70p for a pint in Cardiff and Mrs Guy paid 42p for half a pint.

“It has gone up quite a bit but if we do not use our pubs we are going to lose them – they are the community now,” she added.

For his part, Mr Bales wants to keep alive the pub culture he grew up enjoying.

“It is an old traditional boozer where you come in have a chat with your mates,” said Mr Bales.

“It is whatever they want their pub to be, I am just here to sell beer.”