There is much criticism about how these pubcos operate often leading to tenants paying above market rents & customers paying inflated beer prices. Greg Mulholland wants to use the opportunity of having an Early Day Motion on the matter debated in Parliament to highlight the problems of pubcos.
The Early Day Motion that he has tabled for debate has the support of 152 MPs. This is a large number of MPs signing up to support an issue that an MP has highlighted for debate. The Early Day Motion, which is written in unique Parliamentary style is -
That this House welcomes the Fair Deal for Your Local campaign supported by the Federation of Small Businesses, Forum of Private Business, the Campaign for Real Ale, Guild of Master Victuallers, Fair Pint, Licensees Supporting Licensees, Pubs Advisory Service, Justice for Licensees and Licensees Unite calling for a fair deal for licensees tied to large pub companies; further welcomes the Government's commitment to introduce a statutory code of practice to enshrine principles of fair dealing and that tied licensees should not be worse off than free of tie licensees; notes that large companies take more than is fair or sustainable from pub profits in both inflated product prices and excessive rents, causing failure of pub businesses nationwide; believes that to deliver the Government's commitment the code must include an option for tied landlords of large companies to pay an independently assessed market rent only to their pub owning company and that this should be offered alongside tied agreements; further notes that this solution was put forward by the former Business and Enterprise Committee, and now by the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, with unanimous cross-party support of Committee members; further believes that this would deliver a fair and positive business relationship between large pub companies and their licensees, resulting in a thriving pub sector which would boost the economy; supports the commitment to exclude family brewers by applying the code to companies that own more than 500 pubs; and urges the Government to implement this to secure a sustainable future for Britain's pubs.
This story about this is reported in today’s Publican’s Morning Advertiser -
The Red Lion pub that Save The Red Lion Campaign is seeking to retain & purchase for the community has been owned by a pubco – Punch Taverns – for a good few years now. You have to ask yourself have the customers benefited from their ownership? Are the beer prices competitive? Has there been any meaningful investment made in the property?
You know the answers to these questions only too well unfortunately! Look out for reports on Greg Mulholland’s Early Day Motion. It’s another step in the campaign to get them reformed.
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