Statutory code: Consultation set to go ahead ‘shortly’

A spokesman for the department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) said: “The Government intends to hold a consultation shortly on the relationship between pub companies and tenants.”

The news follows concerns raised that Chancellor George Osborne had vetoed the plans, fearing they would lead to more red tape for the pub sector.

All-Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group chairman and Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland said he was confident the consultation would be launched soon.

“It is clear there is a very strong will in Parliament to reform the pub company system without harming family brewers.

“The consultation needs to start as soon as possible because MPs all around the country are too well aware from their licensees’ stories that the model operated by the pub companies is simply not fair.

“The consultation has to go ahead — the Government cannot go back on that and it is perfectly reasonable for the Treasury to be consulted. It is an issue that is firmly with BIS, and as we go forward with the consultation one of the arguments making it very attractive for the Government — apart from having cross-party support and lots of support from the Conservative benches — is that this won’t cost the Treasury anything.”

He said that the Treasury had been subsidising the model through tax credits, as well losing tax revenue through the churn and failure of pub businesses.

Speaking exclusively to the PMA last week, shadow pubs minister Toby Perkins called the Government approach to the consultation over the statutory code a “shambles”. He has written to business secretary Vince Cable, asking for clarity on the issue.

In his letter Perkins wrote: “The pub trade needs certainty and needs to know that you will be [taking] action on its behalf.

“I would, therefore, be very grateful if you would write back to me as a matter of urgency to set out what action you will be taking to bring forward this legislation as quickly as possible.”

However, the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has suggested that reports that the Chancellor may have overriden plans to introduce a statutory code may be wide of the mark. Responding to a comment from  Perkins, who said:
“I have written to the Secretary of State to ask whether the Government have changed their policy, but I have had no reply. I wonder whether you might be able to advise me on how to ensure that the House is kept informed. If the Government’s policy has been changed, it seems most unsatisfactory that the readers of The Mail on Sunday​ should be better informed than Members of Parliament.”
Bercow replied: “It does not necessarily follow that the readers of the organ in question are, as he puts it, better informed.
“That said, ministers will of course be conscious of their responsibilities to the House.”