Commercial rent suspended for Fuller’s tenants

It is also communicating across its estate, on a regular basis through the business development managers.

A spokesperson for Fuller, Smith & Turner said: “It is imperative we help our tenants through these unprecedented times.

“To end that, we have suspended all commercial rent for the time being and we will review this as the situation progresses.”

Full strength

They added: “We want to make sure when this is all over, our tenants are in a good position to get their pubs back to full strength.

“To that end, we are working with the British Institute of Innkeepers to ensure they can access any additional relevant Government support to help with their cash flow and with other partners to protect their emotional wellbeing too.

“In addition, we are communicating right across the estate, on a very regular basis, through our business development managers.”

Under review

This comes after Admiral also announced it has cancelled rent for licensees​ from Saturday 21 March until Thursday 30 April – an end date that will stay under review.

In a letter to its operators from the pubco’s chief executive officer Chris Jowsey, Admiral also said it was “determined to support” licensees through the Covid-19 outbreak period and it looked forward to the pubs reopening as soon as the virus is under control.

It added how it was focusing on helping and advising on how pubs can maintain an income, and that it had seen a number of pubs set up food and drink delivery offers, as well as offering communities support services.

The letter also outlined the measures announced by the Government in the past few days, including employment support, VAT payments deferral, cash grants and business rates holiday, as well as Sky and BT Sports suspending charges for pubs.