MP launches Save the Pub campaign group

By James Wilmore

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Beer tie Leeds north west Greg mulholland

A new parliamentary group aiming to help ailing pubs and reform the beer tie is being launched in Westminster today by controversial MP Greg...

A new parliamentary group aiming to help ailing pubs and reform the beer tie is being launched in Westminster today by controversial MP Greg Mulholland.

The All-Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group is aiming to bring together MPs and peers, who want to protect pubs.

Among its aims will be a "reform" of the beer tie, lower beer taxes, and the scrapping of planned tax rises.

It will also challenge the government to look at supermarket beer pricing.

The group will also push for changes to planning law to recognise the importance of and to offer more protection to pubs faced with closure.

Mulholland, Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West, said: "It is time that national and local government accepted their responsibilities to protect and support pubs. This new group will push them to do so."

He called for a "more level playing field" between the on and off-trade.

On the beer tie, he added: "It is also time to address the fact that the way some companies operate the tie is no longer fair and is making some pubs unviable.

"There are also pubs being closed simply to suit shareholders interests when the pubs in themselves could and would be taken on by another operator.

"If we are serious as a nation about protecting our pubs and our heritage, then it is high time we enshrined the pub in law and gave communities a say before they are taken from them.

"The new group will make common cause with some groups on some issues and others on other issues, but unlike some in the trade we will address all the things that are threatening and closing pubs."

The group will be independent, and work with all associations, organisations and campaign groups, and also licensees and pub customers.

Mulholland added: "It is also time to listen more to the voices of licensees and of pub customers as well as the many trade associations who represent particular sections of the trade, but we look forward to working with everyone in Britain who genuinely wants to fight for the future of the British pub."

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