Tied tenants to lobby MPs today

Scores of MPs are expected to discuss the pubco model with tied tenants at an event at Parliament today.

Hundreds of tied tenants from across the UK will descend on Westminster for the Lobby Day organised by campaign group Fair Pint.

The group is also launching a report which will highlight the difference in the wholesale price of beer and the prices that tied tenants have to pay.

It also calls for action in response to the Business and Enterprise Select Committee report last week which called for major reform of the beer tie.

Steve Corbett, a tied tenant and a member of Fair Pint, said: "The Business and Enterprise Select Committee was clear in its conclusion that the tie is causing damage to the UK pub sector. As their report pointed out, the vast majority of tied tenants a struggling financially and earning less than the minimum wage even in pubs with large turnovers.

"Tenants do not have a fair share of profits but bear most of the risk and an increasing number of them are being forced out of business. The business model of the big pubcos is broken. The Government now has a choice to do nothing and see more and more pubs closing or to take action to help the sector by freeing pubs from the tie."

Fair Pint is also calling for a statutory code of practice which allows tenants to choose to operate free of tie when leases are renewed and for the pubco model and tie to be referred to the Competition Commission.