The deadline for entering the Great British Pub Awards 2012 has been extended to Friday 8 June.

Licensees now have another two weeks to enter their pub into the awards, recognised as the one to win in the trade.

No matter what your focus, there really is a category for every pub to enter, with 14 awards ranging from Best Tenanted/Leased Pub and Best Newcomer, to Best Family Pub, Best Freehouse, Best Live Music Pub and the popular Best Community Pub.

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Admiral Taverns, the leading community pub group, is to ramp up its free training workshops over the next 12 months by putting a further 600 licensees through the programmes.

The move comes after more than 400 licensees were able to experience the new business-building courses since their launch in 2011, and means that a total of 1,000 licensees will have benefitted inside two years.

The courses have been designed by training guru John Walker and Admiral’s own head of recruitment and training Suzanne Smith.

The three core workshops focus on finance, marketing and retail excellence.  

Britain's pubs expect to sell an extra 80m pints over Jubilee weekend

Britain’s pubs are expected to sell between 60 and 80 million extra pints of beer, and an extra 7.5 million pub meals over the four-day weekend of the Jubilee predicts the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA).

Many of Britain’s brewers are also joining in the celebrations, with a growing list of commemorative beers being brewed to mark the occasion.

BBPA chief executive Brigid Simmonds said: “Here’s to a great Jubilee weekend for Britain’s pubs. When it comes to celebrating a great occasion, beer and pubs have so much to offer that says something special about being British. With so many great Jubilee beers on sale, I hope people visit their local to raise a glass to the Queen.”

Visitor information points are being installed in pubs in the Peak District and Derbyshire, as part of a pilot programme to keep tourists informed and boost trade to pubs.

Nine pubs will take part in the pilot, with the first visitor information point being launched at the Wheatsheaf in Baslow by tourism minister John Penrose. 

The Peak District attracts 35 million visitors each year. Under the new pilot scheme, pub customers will be able to pick up leaflets and brochures on what there is to see and do in the area. It is hoped that visitors will stay on to enjoy what the pub has to offer, helping both pubs and the wider tourism industry. 

Pubs that raise money for good causes can now receive the recognition they deserve through a new category in the Great British Pub Awards.

All pubs that complete – or have already completed – the PubAid survey will be automatically entered for this Most Charitable Pub award. PubAid directors and awards judges will then look through the survey responses and select a shortlist of pubs from the information they provide, based on the amount raised and/or the most innovative way of fundraising.

The pub trade raised over £101 million for charitable causes in 2010.

Jonathan Neame, chief executive of brewer Shepherd Neame, and soon to be chairman of the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) says that while he “genuinely believes” the industry has made great progress in joining together on issues such as beer duty, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Neame said: “I think the great opportunity for the industry over the next two years before the general election is to try and get the government to think more positively about the work and the value and the benefits that beer and pubs bring to society.

“We need to find a way to engage with a strong, positive and united voice because our sector should be a major driver of growth and investment.”

Trade bodies have given the thumbs up to the ‘breathing space’ afforded to the industry in the content of the Queen’s speech which — for the first time in 10 years — did not contain pub-specific legislative proposals.

Both the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) and the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) welcomed the Queen’s “slimmed down” parliamentary address.

“This is the first Queen’s speech for over a decade which has not had a swathe of new pub-specific legislation in it,” said Kate Nicholls, ALMR strategic affairs director.

Ilkley Brewery is hoping to highlight the plight of some pubs to MPs, as its "Save the Pub” beer was put on tap in the House of Commons Strangers' Bar.

The ale will be enjoyed by MPs in support of the All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub group. 

In recent years, the parliamentary group has been lobbying the Government to come up with changes to help keep local pubs alive and well.

A third of Britons believe that it is important to have a pub close to their home as it demonstrates that they are part of a community, according to new research by market research company Mintel.

The research found that more than twice as many people find it more enjoyable drinking in a pub than drinking at home. This is because of the “atmosphere and theatre” of a pub environment, Mintel said.

“It is almost as if a pub is a bit of a status symbol for a community, even if they don’t use it much, they want to know that they have the option to do so if they wish,” said Mintel.

The majority of the British public want the government to do more to support pubs by granting tax breaks, a new national study of 2,000 adults has found.

More than two-thirds (67%) of people questioned in the research commissioned by technology and software company Fourth Hospitality said the government should follow the example of France, which lowered VAT charged to bars and restaurants in 2009 to 5.5%. 

The survey, which was carried out at the end of March, revealed that the pub is still held in high regard, with 76% of those surveyed seeing pubs in a very positive light.