Where does a pint cost the least?

Beer drinkers in the south are paying a pound a pint more than northerners, with Surrey the most expensive area outside London.

According to the Good Pub Guide, Londoners are paying an average of £4.08 for a pint of beer – 27% more than the price in the cheapest parts of the country.

Meanwhile in Surrey, a pint averages £3.75.

However, drinkers in Herefordshire are paying 78p a pint less, at an average of £3.21. And there's also cheap tipple in Yorkshire, where beer's £3.25 a pint, as well as Derbyshire at £3.29 and Cumbria at £3.30.

The answer, says the guide, is to pick a craft beer brewed on the premises, which will average just £2.99.

Good Pub Guide editor Fiona Stapley tells the Mirror that the price difference is down to overheads.

"In Surrey anything to do with running a pub costs more, from rents upwards. Everything is at a premium and whilst pubs do try to absorb as much of the costs themselves, they have to pass some of this expense onto their customers," she says.

"In Herefordshire not only are running expenses less, customers in pubs are more canny with their money and landlords know this - and therefore try to keep the cost of a pint at fairer prices."

As a result of rising costs and falling custom, pubs are increasingly finding it harder to break even. According to figures from insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor, the number going bust rocketed by 53% in the second quarter of this year, and one in five pubs and bars faces 'significant financial distress'.

One pub that should get plenty of customers this year, though, is the Horse Guards Inn in Tillington, Sussex, which has been named the Pub of the Year. Dating back to the eighteenth century, it has 'delicious food' and 'a gently civilised atmosphere', the Good Pub Guide said.

The price of a pint - top 20
1. London - £4.08
2. Surrey - £3.75
3. Kent - £3.72
4. Berkshire - £3.70
5. Sussex - £3.68
6. Hertfordshire - £3.67
7. Isle of Wight - £3.66
8. Buckinghamshire - £3.63
9. Oxfordshire - £3.62
10. Hampshire - £3.54
11. Norfolk - £3.51
12. Suffolk - £3.50
13. Warwickshire - £3.49
14. Bedfordshire - £3.48
15. Cambridgeshire - £3.48
17. Essex - £3.47
18. Staffordshire - £3.47
19. Scotland - £3.46
20. Gloucestershire - £3.46