Robert Sayles: Whose fault is it anyway?

And yet it was so very different not that long ago. Think back to the early years of this decade. Smoke filled pubs, full of people flush with cash, buoyed with a confidence fuelled by fast rising house prices, the security of full time employment and easily obtainable cheap credit.

These were good times for all of us. Not only were the values of our houses going up, (assuming we had one) but so we were assured was the value of our lease. We never had it so good. Plenty for everybody, issues of rents and ties seemed almost irrelevant then. After all the till was full at the end of the night. We were all doing very nicely thank you.

But now sadly it's a different world. What happened? Where did it all go wrong? The answer is that the seeds of our downfall can be traced back to these halcyon days. Much was fundamentally wrong even back then but nobody felt the need to ask any questions. Why would anybody rock the boat, we were all on to a winner, weren't we?

The feel good factor lulled all of us into a false sense of security and in the clamour to get a pub and get a piece of the action pubcos came to see they could quite literally ask for whatever they wanted and get it.

And truth be told they could because we were all too busy ensuring we didn't miss out because we all so desperately wanted a piece of the action! We all wanted to live the dream, wanted it so badly in fact most of us didn't even bother to question, we were just too busy making sure we got on the gravy train. We were asking for it and the pubcos made sure we got it all right!

What now? Where do we go from here? Who is going to put things right? Who is going to address the fundamental problems we currently face? I hear one or two obscure politicians making noises but precious little else. Plenty of finger pointing. Everybody blaming everybody else. Understandable? Yes. Productive? I think not.

I would suggest that ultimately our fate lies in our own hands. (I acknowledge that sadly for some it is already too late). For the rest of us the only way forward for us is to make sure we never make the same mistakes again. We need to be heard and the only thing that will make pubcos listen is when the queue waiting to take on their overpriced and underperforming outlets quite simply melts away.

Thankfully this process appears to be already well under way. Many of the pubcos now have large numbers of pubs on temporary agreements, (TAW) whilst many more are being run by holding companies.

The misplaced confidence of the pubcos was such that the word tenancy had almost become a dirty word; I recall the response of a BDM from Enterprise Inns when I asked if they had any pubs available on tenancy agreements. "Oh we don't do those anymore" she answered dismissively. Of course not, get everybody on a long term agreement so much easier for everyone isn't it? Long term lease. Full drinks tie. Extortionate rent. Please sign here.

No. Not any more, I'd like to think we've finally wised up. But have the pubcos? Will they begin to look at the long term sustainability of their business rather than pander to the shareholder and continue to look for a quick buck at our expense? I suspect they will have little choice if we show them that we have learned our lesson and are no longer going to be taken for a ride. If we don't we'll have no-one to blame but ourselves.