New campaign turns heat on pubco power

Push for removal of tie from all pubs

Calls for Competition Commission probe

A new campaign has been launched to reduce the power of pubcos and make them treat tenants better.

The Fair Pint campaign wants the tie removed from all pubs, except those owned by brewers with fewer than 500 sites.

It is understood that the group has financial backing from a well-known benefactor. The campaign calls for the voluntary recommendations of the 2004 Trade & Industry Select Committee (TISC) report into pubco power, relating to how tenants are treated, to be made mandatory. And the group wants the Government to ask for a Competition Commission probe into pubcos.

Fair Pint is headed by well-known anti-pubco campaigners — accountant Brian Jacobs, Freedom for Pubs Association founder Mike Bell and surveyor David Morgan of Cookseys DMP, alongside pubco tenants Mark Dodds and Steve Corbett.

PR and lobbying firm Connect Public Affairs has been hired to help. Connect has worked with major companies, public bodies and campaign groups, from Tesco to Help the Aged and police forces. Fair Pint kicked off this week by writing to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) rejecting its reasons for ignoring calls for a fresh probe into pubcos.

The OFT said pubco lease agreements "do not raise competition concerns" in a letter to Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron, revealed in the MA last week.

Fair Pint's letter says: "It is not acceptable that the OFT takes no responsibility in this industry."

Fair Pint members are to meet All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group chairman John Grogan MP and officials from the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform this month to outline their concerns.

The group is also to write to every MP to urge them to sign Farron's anti-pubco Early Day Motion, signed by 21 MPs to date. Campaign beer mats have been produced for pub customers to register their support.

Jacobs, who gave evidence to the TISC inquiry, said action is required now because of the high number of pub closures.

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during the difficult trading conditions.

GMV lines up meeting with MP Farron

The Guild of Master Victuallers (GMV) is to meet anti-pubco MP Tim Farron this month to discuss the plight of struggling tenants.

The GMV wants Farron to highlight the problems faced by tenants in Parliament.

"The traditional pub is in a dire state," said GMV trustee Brian Rees.

"Some lessees are getting help [from pubcos], but whether it's going to prove to be enough we don't yet know. The pubcos have got to leave the lessees with a living wage and a lot of them are not.

"We are not running the pubcos down. We want to sit down with them and get fairness for tenants."