CAMRA lobbies ministers to act on pubcos

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) urged two ministers to take action against pubcos in a meeting yesterday.

CAMRA called on Consumer Affairs Minister Kevin Brennan and Employment Relations Minister Pat McFadden to overturn the Office of Fair Trading's decision to take no further action on the beer tie and refer it to the Competition Commission.

CAMRA head of public affairs Jonathan Mail said: "We reiterated our concerns about the way in which the tie is operated by some pubcos.

"We highlighted to ministers the differences between wholesale prices paid by tied tenants and those free-of-tie and reiterated our concerns that consumers are suffering by the higher prices and reduced choice.

"We talked about the proposed Code of Conduct [between pubcos and tenants] and stressed our concern that they are non-legally binding and there's no obvious dispute resolution solution to lessees."

Mail added: "We provided them with a brief on where we felt the OFT was wrong."

For example, the fact managed pubs weren't included in the sample of free-of-tie sites, while free-of-tied leased pubs were. This means the stated 8p difference between tied and non-tied pubs is "flawed", he said.

Mail said the ministers "seemed to have a good understanding of the issues".

"They indicated they would be talking to parties on both sides before coming to a decision [on what action to take."

When asked when this could happen, Mail believed it could be after the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee holds its hearing into recent actions by the industry on 8 December.

Mail said more meetings with politicians on the issue are lined up.

Also present at the meeting was long-time CAMRA supporter and former MP Dennis Turner, now Baron Bilston.