Tiny AIM-quoted Devon brewer Heavitree has underlined the travails of running a small business in its latest interim statement.

The family-owned and run company saw pre-tax profits double to £610,000 in the six months to April, after selling the Lamb Inn at Sandford. However, chairman WP Tucker is less optimistic about prospects for the rest of the year.

‘I can do no better than to repeat, word for word, what I wrote this time last year,’ he complains before going on to say that ‘the cost of implementing legislation looks like being £400,000,’ citing three particular bugbears, including the Disability Discrimination Act, which requires all pubs to be accessible to everyone by putting ramps in where necessary.

He reiterates that this is ‘bad news for us but good news for the fast-growing army of bureaucrats whose jobs depend on the invention of costly schemes.’

Most of the outlay will fall in the second half of this year and hamper profits growth. He adds that this compliance takes up a lot of management time and the beleaguered brewer ends by saying that politicians say ‘this is all known as “cutting red tape”’.