Fair Pint: machine tie must be scrapped

By Ewan Turney

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Machine income Renting Leasing Punch

Fair Pint: machine tie must be scrapped
Fair Pint: machine tie must be scrapped
Punch's move to stop rentalising machine income is a "half-hearted" response to the Business and Enterprise Committee report.

Punch's move to stop rentalising machine income is a "half-hearted" response to the Business and Enterprise Committee (BEC) report, according to Fair Pint.

The anti-tie campaigners claim the only fair way ahead is for the machine tie to be completely scrapped.

Punch stopped rentalising machine income on pubs from 1 August in a move that will benefit licensees by around £1,250 a year.

The move will be applied to each Punch pub that is re-let or subject to a rent review from now on — it will be five years or so before every Punch leased has undergone a rent review.

The pubco said the move would cost it around £2m a year, with the total cost adding up to between £8m and £10m.

Fair Pint claims that Punch will still be keeping around £4,500 of machine income a year per pub.

"This news has been presented by Punch Taverns as good news for tenants when it is at best a half-hearted response to the BEC recommendation that the machine tie ought to be scrapped entirety, which is something which was recommend by the Trade and Industry Select Committee back in 2004," said Fair Pint founding member Steve Corbett.

"The fact that Punch have said that they will only stop rentalising machine income at rent reviews or when tenants take on new leases makes it clear that they are not interested in helping tenants who are currently fighting for survival due to the unfair system and increases the risk that the income will be clawed back elsewhere."

Corbett added: "The only way to ensure fairness is if the machine tie is scrapped entirely, but as ever the pubcos talk about wanting to respond to the BEC report by improving fairness but are unwilling to make any changes, which will be effective in improving the financial position of their tenants."

A Punch spokesperson said: "We made this change in good faith, as a further example of our commitment to evolve our leased business model."

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