MP accuses pubcos of 'misleading'

By Michelle Perrett

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Brian binley Enterprise inns Northampton south

Binley:Pubcos are misleading tenants
Binley:Pubcos are misleading tenants
Pubcos were accused of misleading tenants by a leading MP sitting on the committee investigating the beer tie. Brian Binley is the only MP to have...

Pubcos were accused of misleading tenants by a leading MP sitting on the committee investigating the beer tie.

Brian Binley is the only MP to have sat on both recent committees looking into the pubcos' relationship with tenants. He raised his concerns during the first hearing for the Business, Innovation & Skills Committee follow-up inquiry into pubcos last week.

Binley, who is the Conservative MP for Northampton South, said: "The business model of the pubcos and the business model of every pub is dependent not only on the rent, but the level of discount and the relationship between the two. That is why information on this in particular is vital to people who are making a decision on whether they are going into pubs."

He slammed pubcos for failing to provide information that would allow the publishing of the level of discounts against rents online. He said it is "not beyond the wit of man".

He also took issue with the BII (British Institute of Innkeeping) for failing to implement the recommendation.

He said he was "concerned" that a recommendation from the committee had not been put into action.

"Considering the serious nature of this, and bearing in mind what the Government said in support and repeated under the new Government, I would have thought that you would have taken those recommendations much more seriously and I'm disappointed," he said.

"I think you need to take this as a serious point and to come back to us before the end of this inquiry to tell us what you are going to do."

The BII promised to report back on this recommendation before the end of the inquiry.

Binley also accused pubcos of failing to provide transparent information to help their tenants. "In my constituency I get people (licensees) in who tell me exactly what their profitability ought to be, but that is from the perception of the pubco. The profitability is about what pubcos want from it — it is not about what a tenant might expect. There is something going on here that is unacceptable to many people's lives."

Binley also raised concerns that not all area managers were using the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) guidance when setting rents. He said: "I have the evidence that Punch is [training BDMs in the RICS guidance] and making an effort. I have no evidence whatsoever from the very famed Enterprise Inns, led by the very famed Ted Tuppen, [that the company is] embarking on that process.

"It's a very serious matter that goes to the heart of the problem."

Binley added: "Tenants are being misled when they go into pubs. It's that simple."

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