Pubs "pawns in the City's game of monopoly

Pubs have become "little more than pawns in the City's game of monopoly", the joint chief of a property agent has claimed.

During a speech on the corporate pub market in London this week, Martin Willis, joint managing director of Fleurets, said: "Private equity and property players are the big players that drive our industry. We have lived in the shadow of wall of cash as the City likes to call it."

He added: "Private investors have become really active in the auction rooms in the last five years."

Willis highlighted the way in which opco/propco companies looked at the industry in a "way different way to major breweries".

"Churning is a major part of our industry," he added. "Business failure is also a key part of pubs coming onto the market."

But he suggested that regional brewers were now finding they could take "long-term money", which was helping them to expand.

On the issue of a possible recession, he reassured delegates by saying that people did not stop drinking during a downturn and would celebrate when coming out of bad period. "We are pretty resilient with the trade we are in," he said, during the conference entitled Licensed and Leisure Property, run by Henry Stewart.

Issues over the smoking ban were also discussed during the event. John Walker, an area team leader at Westminster City Council, said that there were still a lot of people who did not know what the 50 per cent rule was and that signage compliance was still an issue.