IPC wants pubco review in one year

The new Independent Pub Confederation (IPC) wants MPs who conducted the probe into pubcos to formally review the trade's progress in one year's time.

That was one request in a list presented to MPs on Monday, at a meeting hosted by the All-Party Beer Group.

The IPC called on MPs to act to "ensure a fair and legal framework" for tenants. Specific measures included:

• Ensuring the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee (BISC) follows the trade's progress and formally reviews it in one year's time, irrespective of any action taken by the Government or Competition Commission in the meantime.

• Repealing the Land Agreements Exclusion Order, offering greater transparency on lease practices

• Outlawing upward-only rent reviews

• Supporting the recommendations of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors to make rent-setting more transparent

• Urging Government to refer the beer tie to the Competition Commission.

At the meeting, the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) came under fire from the IPC and Save the Pub Group chairman MP Greg Mulholland for not publicly debating its new Framework Code of Practice on Leases.

Kate Nicholls, IPC secretary, said: "The BBPA's failure to debate the issue with the IPC in front of MPs means that it has forfeited the right to be considered the voice of the licensee."

A BBPA spokesman said a summary of the code had been publicly laid out in the MA and the meeting's format was decided by the Beer Group — while BISC will hear details publicly next month.