Wetherspoon's looks at scaling back expansion JD Wetherspoon, the high-street pub company, says it may scale back its 2012 expansion plans in the face of "punitive" tax increases by government. "There's never been pub closures like the ones over the last few years and if nothing is done the trend of people going to supermarkets will continue," said Tim Martin, Wetherspoon's chief executive and founder. My worry is that [Chancellor George] Osborne and [Prime Minister David] Cameron are dinner-party goers rather than pub goers. The pub chain, which originally intended to open 50 pubs this year, said it would wait until after the government's budget in March before taking a final decision. Mr Martin said he expected the price of a pint to go up by about 20p after the March budget and pub meals by about 7 per cent - further piling pressure on pubs and cash-strapped consumers. "We will have to take a look [at expansion] because of the tax," said Tim Martin. We will be considering it over the next six months. The government increased beer duty by 7.2 per cent in the last budget under the so-called duty escalator - introduced by the Labour government in 2008 - whereby tax on alcohol rises by a minimum of 2 per cent above inflation each year. Wetherspoon, which has 834 pubs across the UK, has long been a vocal critic of the above-inflation rise of beer duty as well as the "disparity" in value added tax between supermarkets and pubs which it argues allows supermarkets and off-licences to sell cheaper alcohol. An average of 14 pubs closed their doors each week in the UK between December 2010 and June 2011 according to the latest figures from pub campaigners Camra. Last year Wetherspoon, which relies on attracting large numbers of customers to maintain profitability, said it had long-term plans for 1,600 pubs in the UK revised up from 1,500 pubs in April. The company has opened about 50 pubs a year for the past three years.