Time for an ombudsman?

Everybody knows that it makes sense for disagreements to be sorted out quickly, in a way that both parties feel is fair and just. It's just common sense, isn't it?

There's an idea gaining ground in this respect. The Federation of Small Business (FSB) floated it a fortnight ago. Why not set up an ombudsman for the tied trade? The FSB argued: "The ombudsman would function as a cheap and independent arbitration service built on a clear statutory code of conduct or through the power of statutory instruments".

The idea is echoed this week by Alistair Arkley, who has run two tenanted businesses in his time: "Arbitration is a fine idea," he says, "but it needs to be quick, cheap and independent of the landlords, which the BBPA, ALMR, BII and, for that matter, the licensed property valuers are not." Arkell thinks the solution is "more like the ombudsman schemes in the financial sector".

Too many disputes between pubco and tenant escalate into very expensive and very bitter stalemates. The plan to set up a low-cost rent review dispute service deals with one element of this problem. Too often, though, other kinds of dispute will fester into draining and protracted stand-offs. A tenanted sector ombudsman (who needs to be clearly independent) would have the power to investigate disputes and publish his/her conclusions — with the tenanted pub companies bound by these conclusions.

Too often there is a situation where a BDM has an "impossible" tenant or a tenant feels the BDM has let him or her down. An ombudsman could be a fast-track resolution service. It could be a win-win all round, providing tenants with a genuine alternative, independent dispute-resolution route, while the tenanted pub companies would, in all likelihood, see far fewer "campaigns" against them. An ombudsman might also deter the practice of BDMs making promises they fail to keep.

Enterprise Inns boss Ted Tuppen has already offered £100,000 to set up an independent licensee trade body to address the imbalance of power between licensees and the large tenanted pubcos.

The setting-up and funding of an ombudsman would be a logical step on from that. Enterprise recently reported that a dispute with a single licensee, Colm Powell, the man who took to his coffin in Tonbridge as a protest against the company, cost the company an incredible £200,000 to resolve. The cost in negative publicity to Enterprise and the rest of the industry is impossible to put a financial cost against.

An ombudsman, trusted by all parts of the industry to provide a fair and speedy resolution to such impasses, might just ?be the answer in creating a real climate of trust