Campaigners give thumbs up to government's support for pubs
GMB, the trade union proposing a tenants' rent strike over the beer tie, has welcomed today's support package for pubs announced by pub minister John Healey by calling for the ownership structure of the country's boozers to be radically overhauled.
Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary said: "Pub licensees need help right now to stop pubs going bust. Any support like this for licensees is really important. The position is desperate for many publicans.
"Not until there is a root and branch change in the structure of ownership will licensees get a fair deal and customers get reasonable prices. The relationship and control from pubco to customers is Dickensian and unfair to both licensees and customers alike," he added.
A GMB spokesman meanwhile told The Publican that pub companies simply needed to be stripped of their ability to sell beer - or anything else for that matter - to their tenants.
"These are property companies. We have no problem with them owning the building of a pub. It is their involvement in the wholesale business that is the issue. They are using a dominant position to overcharge their tenants," he said.
"British Land is one of the country's largest landlords, but it doesn't get involved in selling things to its tenants. Pubcos should merely collect rent," he added.
Healey, the recently-anointed pubs minister, today announced a 12-point action plan to give what he described as "practical support" to pubs, backed by £4m in government funding.
A number of measures are to be introduced including banning the practice of restrictive covenants which prevents a pub that is sold from continuing to trade as licensed premises and allowing local councils a chance to intervene to prevent a pub from being demolished.
Local communities will also get help to buy into their pub in the event it is struggling to make ends meet.
Mike Benner, chief executive of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), also welcomed the minister's announcement. "This is a great day for people who care about the future of our community pubs.
"This inspired action plan could offer a lifeline to thousands of pubs and help communities stave off pub closures which threaten their quality of life and community well-being."
Benner, who is awaiting the result of his organisation's appeal against the OFT's rejection of its super-complaint regarding the beer tie, said he was delighted that Healey "has listened to CAMRA's calls to help stop pubs being demolished unnecessarily, to ban the anti-competitive practice of placing restrictive covenants on pubs to stop their future use as pubs, and for the industry to self-reform the beer tie to allow pub tenants a free of tie option and to take a guest ale".
Adding its weight to support for the measures, pub campaign group Fair Pint described Healey's package as a "significant step forward" for the interests of both publicans and consumers.
Steve Corbett, a spokesman for Fair Pint, said: "The government's call for action to give tied tenants the option to go free of tie is a total vindication of Fair Pint's arguments that the operation of tied leases is one of the main causes of the problems being faced by the pub sector.
"The days of the pubco business model are now clearly numbered. There is now an appetite for intervention which crosses all the main parties."
In a debate on the future of the pub industry held at the House of Commons earlier this week there was cross party political support for an investigation by the competition authorities into the sector and its practices.
