THE cost of a pint is set to soar by up to four pence in many local pubs. For once, it is not the chancellor who is responsible.

Instead, brewer Scottish and Newcastle, which owns Tadcaster brewery John Smiths, is blaming huge increases in the cost of raw materials such as hops and barley.

Few of us who enjoy a pint down the local after work will be much comforted by that. And nor will pub landlords themselves.

Across the region, pubs have been hit not only by the smoking ban, but by huge rises in the price of gas and electricity.

Tony Sissons, landlord of The Three Cranes and president of the York Licensed Victuallers Association, warns many are already on the brink of closure.

This will only make things worse.

Some pubs are successfully adapting - and making the food as much of a draw as the beer. Our part of the world is justly renowned for the quality of its foodie pubs.

But there will always be a need for the good, no-nonsense local, where you can go to chew over the events of the day.

Sadly, like so much else in modern Britain such as local post offices, this part of our way of life seems increasingly under threat.

The danger is that if pubs do close, we'll all be forced back indoors to drink cheap supermarket booze. That would be yet another step towards the break-up of society.

So here's a suggestion to turn the chancellor's eyebrows white.

How about cutting the duty on beer for once, just for a change? It would help struggling pubs survive. And it would make him the most popular chancellor since... well, Gordon Brown. Guaranteed.