One of the UK's leading pub chains has announced it will offer pints of beer for less than £1, down to the prices of 1989.

One of the UK's leading pub chains has announced it will offer pints of beer for less than £1, down to the prices of 1989.

JD Wetherspoon, which operates 713 pubs across the UK, including around 40 in Scotland, said the price reductions on some beer, bottled lager, wine and spirits will run "indefinitely".

A number of meals will also be offered at £2.99, said the firm, which opened 20 new pubs in the last few months of 2008, creating hundreds of new jobs, despite the economic downturn.

Licensed trade representatives said the price reductions were a response to the deep discounting by supermarkets but said the scenario represented "the worst of both worlds".

The move could also bring the company into the firing line of the Scottish Government, which has so previously reserved most of its criticism on cheap drink for multiple retailers and supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda.

Holyrood is expected to announce how it intends to tackle irresponsible promotions early this year.

Last night Wetherspoon's chief executive John Hutson said: "We believe that our new food and drink prices will allow people to enjoy a visit to a Wetherspoon pub without it costing them too much."

But Paul Waterson, chief executive of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, added: "Wetherspoons are the big supermarkets of the ontrade with their big buy' mentality but of course the ontrade can't stand still in the face of deep discounting by supermarkets."