Licensees and MPs hit out at pubco power

Fierce criticism of pubcos and the beer tie dominated the first open meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group.

Licensees, anti-pubco campaigners and MPs focused on the conduct of pub companies and the model itself as the key issue to be addressed to help struggling licensees during the heated meeting in Parliament.

Enterprise licensee Anthony Manderson of the Roland Arms in Aston, near Sheffield, pointed to the high prices the pubco's hosts pay for beer and said: "Enterprise don't give you any help. They are absolutely raping the industry.

"It's not the problem of the tax [leading to closures] it's the greed of the companies."

Multiple lessee Karl Harrison agreed: "Pubs don't close because of beer duty. They close because of excessive rent and outrageous beer prices."

He blamed the huge debt amassed by the pubcos, which means they have to recover £50,000 per pub.

Fair Pint campaigner Steve Corbett said: "Punch and Enterprise and the rest of the property companies have killed the industry. If we don't do something quickly there will be thousands more pubs closing."

Eric Illsley, Labour MP for Barnsley Central and vice-chair of the group, spoke of the "monopoly" position of the current pubco model.

"We seem to have gone back to the something we tried to abolish in the 1990 Beer Orders."

There was criticism of the fact that no licensees spoke at the high-profile meeting between the trade and five ministers earlier this month.

Group chairman Greg Mulholland revealed he had been sent a letter from Marston's boss Ralph Findlay, which counteracted this argument by saying licensee and operator interests are "mutual".

The MP said: "Unfortunately a lot of the time the views and interests of operators are increasingly divergent from the views and interests of licensees."

On the issue of the alcohol duty escalator, Bedford MP Patrick Hall said: "Maybe there's more chance if we ask not for scrapping but for suspending [of the escalator] in the context of helping the economy and small business."