McMullen puts five pubs up for sale
Managing director Peter Furness-Smith said he hoped potential purchasers can see past “this Government’s highly anti-pub policies and maintain these five pubs as a going concern”.
The c.135-strong group said that, following a review of its pub estate, it is choosing to sell freeholds of the Rest & Welcome, Haultwick; the Tanners Arms, Bishop’s Stortford; the Farriers, St Albans; the Green Man, Ickleford; and the Maiden’s Head, Whitwell, all in Hertfordshire.
Furness-Smith said: “We have stood by these pubs but feel it is now time for others to craft an opportunity from them.”
McMullen said it had responded to difficult market conditions by cutting average rents by 20% since 2008 to assist tenants. It called on the Government to do the same for business rates, rather than increasing them by 7% in the same period.
