Fair Pint: Rents are to blame for pub failures

The Fair Pint campaign has hit back at claims that the beer tie is not to blame for the problems faced by community pubs.

Enterprise Inns chief operating officer Simon Townsend told the Community Pubs Inquiry last week that the pubco model allowed flexibility in times of economic challenge.

In the six months to April this year, Townsend revealed that 866 - about one in nine - Enterprise Inns pubs had been offered some form of rent relief or drinks discount to help them.

He said rate relief for pubs which provided facilities for the community would be a good way to help pubs.

However, the Fair Pint group - which is calling for an end to the beer tie - said rents had everything to do with the problems faced by community pubs.

Fair Pint claims that although rents are supposed to be calculated on profit assessment, many pubs are stuck on upwards only rents because they are adjusted yearly by Retail Price Index.

"Everybody, including the pubcos, recognise that the market is currently struggling. If the tied model is a viable model, able to respond to economic challenges, then surely my rent should be going down," said Enterprise lessee Mike Bell of the Portobello Gold in Notting Hill.

"Mr Townsend claims that the worst thing for his business is a closed pub. The answer is quite simple then - reduce rents to reflect the downturn in pub trade and stop making us pay twice as much for beer as it would cost if we could go directly to the brewery."

He added: "Mr Townsend is calling on the Government to offer rate relief to pubs who provide facilities for the community.

"I would welcome any form of relief, but what he is really asking is for the taxpayer to bail out the licensee so the pubco can keep rents unrealistically high."

Bell also called on Townsend to reveal the number of licensees who had surrendered or forfeited their leases after he said it was "not a significant number".

"In that case, it shouldn't take them long to count how many have forfeited and I look forward to seeing the figures shortly," said Bell.