A meeting of minds: hard to achieve, but surely desirable

A friend said to me recently that if he had a pound for every time the pub media trotted out the line that the prospect of tenants and landlords working more co-operatively was "no bad thing" he'd be a rich man.

The fact that he is already quite wealthy enough is beside the point - he is, quite literally, on the money.

The pub trade press does indeed call for greater co-operation betwixt those who own the pub and those who lease it for either a short or lengthy period of time.

And why shouldn't it? As long as tenant/landlord relationships exist isn't the best outcome a meeting of minds?

Such a coming together rarely happens however, for obvious reasons. But is that any reason for not calling for the environment to change? I don't believe so.

I've been accused of being an apologist for the brewers and pub companies - although never to my face, it has to be noted - simply because I have the temerity to suggest that getting along is more desirable than not.

That I do this doesn't detract from the fact - one which I acknowledge - that a lot of the traffic can be one way.

I hear from plenty of licensees who would simply love to have an open and fruitful relationship with the company that owns the bricks and mortar which forms their pub, but to no avail.

I will raise this with the company to whom they pay rent and on the occasions that such contact achieves something I feel the warm glow of satisfaction that comes from helping broker a resolution to a problem.

For as long as the industry looks like it does, working co-operatively is the best option, in my book; thus the repeated call to knock some heads together.

Mick, that's another quid I owe you.