BBPA code to ease the
strain of pub disputes
by Tony Halstead
Clearer guidelines governing the rocky relationship between pub owners and their tenants are set to be published before the end of the year.
The British Beer & Pub Asso-ciation (BBPA) is in the final stages of drawing up an updated code of practice aimed at rooting out tensions between the parties.
The streamlined code is being compiled following last summer's Trade & Industry Select Committee inquiry into pubco power. The three-month inquiry recommended an urgent review of the code, which was last revised back in 1997.
Evidence at the hearing revealed a feeling of mistrust on the part of licensees into the way pub operators negotiated pub leasing agreements.
MPs called for an immediate review of the way owner landlords handled rent reviews and recommended greater clarification of the role of business development managers.
They also wanted better complaints and disputes procedures and greater availability of information on all aspects of the lease agreements and individual pub businesses.
The BBPA said it expected the new-look code to be completed very soon, with pub- lication due before the end of the year.
'We are working on the final stages of the code, which will be completed very soon,' said a BBPA spokesman.
The committee's recommendations followed hundreds of submissions from licensees struggling to survive on what they claim are onerous and one-sided lease agreements.
The committee called on the industry to carry out a wide-ranging consultation with all interested parties.
MPs also threatened to ask the Government to consider a statutory code if the industry did not accept voluntary arrangements.
Committee chairman Martin O'Neill (now Lord O'Neill) was particularly critical of the fact that the current code had not been updated for almost eight years.
'Since the code of practice was updated in 1997 the industry has changed and we suggest the code should be updated as a matter of urgency,' O'Neill said in the report.
During the evidence hearings, he said that lease negotiations should be transacted in an open and transparent fashion.
l The British Institute of Innkeeping is also nearing completion of a new accreditation scheme for pub companies and operators.
It is expected the new guide will enable all operators achieving subscribed benchmark standards to be formally accred- ited so prospective licensees considering taking out an agree- ment can check on the status of the company concerned.
