RICS code delayed for months

07-Jul-2010 - Last updated on 28-Aug-2011 at 08:57 GMT

Related tags Rics Public house Punch taverns Enterprise inns

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) code of practice on pub rents is unlikely to be properly assessed by MPs before September,...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) code of practice on pub rents is unlikely to be properly assessed by MPs before September, nearly six months behind schedule.

Sitting before the then-Business, Innovations and Skills (BIS) committee last December, David Rusholme - director of RICS' valuation group - had told MPs he hoped the organisation's code would be ready "by next spring".

He also denied his organisation had been "intimidated" by certain pubcos who, it was said, had wanted the code to be skewed in their favour.

However, a spokesman for RICS told The Publican the organisation had offered the clerk of the new BIS committee an update on its code but that no statement concerning the document would be given until the committee had been elected. "We might be in a position to comment early next week. This is reliant on clarification from the committee," he added.

Chaired by Adrian Bailey, the Labour MP for West Bromwich West, and comprising mostly newly-elected Parliamentarians, the new committee meets for the first time next Tuesday (July 13), when it will discuss a timetable for its work.

But with one of its first tasks likely to be to hear from the Business Secretary, Lib Dem MP Vince Cable, and with Parliament closing for the summer recess on July 29, the RICS document is unlikely to be examined in detail before September, when MPs return from their holidays.

With much riding on the contents of the code, many in the industry will be disappointed that it will be months before it can be assessed by politicians.

Although one of the last public pronouncements from the previous BIS committee was to welcome the progress RICS was making to address guidance on its valuations, there will be frustration that the code has taken so long to see the light of day.

Most pub companies, including Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns, have had their codes of practice ratified by the BII, a key demand from the last BIS committee.

But with some MPs still keen to press for a Parliamentary enquiry into the pub sector, the RICS delay will only serve to frustrate those who want a code that can bind large pub companies and their surveyors to a more transparent rent review process sooner rather than later.

According to the RICS spokesman there was no intention to deliberately delay the code's publication.

"We are just following Parliamentary procedure," he added.