Statutory Code: Resounding support for action over pubcos in BIS survey

The responses, part of the Government consultation showed 6,729 people in favour of Government regulation, with 269 responses - or 3.8% - against it.

The survey, which was criticised by the British Beer & Pub Association of being "deeply flawed", also revealed that 76.5% of people who took part in the 15-question survey were consumers, 11.2% were tied tenants, 11.4% of people who are working in or have worked in the pub industry and 0.8% were free of tie tenants (including lessees).

Majority support ​

The overwhelming majority (95.5%) of people believed that a Statutory Code and independent adjudicator was the appropriate way to tackle problems between pub companies and tenants.

The Government considers the two most important principles of the Statutory Code are that tenants must be treated fairly and lawfully and that tenants should be no worse off than free of tie tenants -  91.9% agreed with this statement.

Participants were also asked about the best way to ensure that tied tenants are no worse off than a free-of-tie option. The majority of people - 67.6% - voted for a compulsory free of tie option, with 29.9% opting to ensure that if a tenant pays higher drink prices than on the open market they must be charged a lower rent and vice versa. A further 2.5% ticked for another option that has not yet been considered.

Challenges​

The majority of people said they don’t think there should be a distinction between leased and tenanted pubs.

Participants were asked what the three biggest challenges they were facing as a tenant. The beer tie (91.2% votes), supermarket pricing (60.6%) and taxation (including beer duty - 59.5%) were voted as the three highest.