Only eight Enterprise pubs are covered by recent High Court ruling

It has emerged that only eight Enterprise Inns pubs out of an estate of around 7,500 are covered by the kind of lease agreement that was the subject of a High Court ruling last week.

The case of the White Horse at Hambrook, near Bristol, has ignited the debate over what is a fair rent, with the judge in the case, Iain Hughes, finding that the rent hike being sought by Enterprise was too high.

However Enterprise claimed a victory of sorts by arguing that the "determination of the rent payable is not a decision of principle or law, and as such, does not bind the outcome of any other lease renewal".

In other words, rents are negotiable on a case-by-case basis. Enterprise also pointed to the fact that the RICS valuation methodology was backed by the judge, although there remain critics of this system.

Geof Collyer, a leisure analyst at Deutsche Bank, pointed out that the lease agreement under review through the old Unique Pub group, was "atypical in the industry".

The "hysteria" in the market over the ruling was misjudged, Collyer argued.

"We would remind investors that the rent setting process is a negotiation that is dependant upon each pub's specific trading pattern," Collyer said.

It was "an art, not a science", he added.