'British pub goers sold short - literally'

Britons are paying £400m too much for their pints each year, after it emerged that almost 90 per cent of pub-bought beers are sold short. Trading standards officers conducting tests of 88 pints bought at 30 bars, pubs and restaurants in Birmingham found the average drink was three-quarters of a fluid ounce (22ml) short of full - 3.94 per cent of a pint. Liberal Democrat MP Richard Younger-Ross, who campaigned last year for a pint to be measured as 100 per cent liquid, said the survey showed short pints remained an issue. "If you pay for a pint, you deserve to be pulled a pint," he said. - Daily Mail​

Pub regulars are furious after a village's only pub shut in a row over late night drinking. Landlord Paul Swan was so fed-up with people arriving at the Duke William in Metfield, Suffolk, just before closing time that he started locking up at 10pm. Then when regulars objected, he decided to close the pub for good. Now there is a campaign to find new owners. - Daily Mirror​

Drinkers could be hit with a £532 bill if they land in hospital after a night on the booze. Bingers with 'acute alcohol intoxication' would face a flat-rate fee if they spent more than 24 hours recovering. Those agreeing to fork out for an alcohol awareness course would get a discount under tough new proposals. - The Sun​

JD Wetherspoon, the pub operator known for its cheap beer and value meals, is understood to be in advanced talks to acquire 12 late-night venues from 3D Entertainment (3DE), the Chicago Rock Café owner, for about £4.3m. The group, which already runs 740 pubs, including seven acquired from 3DE in September, is tipped to exchange contracts on the outlets, a mixture of Chicago Rocks and nightclubs, early in the New Year. It is paying a multiple of three times earnings. - The Times​

Enterprise [Inns] is just one of the property corporations with a grip on the pub sector. Together with companies such as Punch Taverns, which owns a similar number of establishments, the pub management model has radically changed from the days when brewers controlled and protected the industry. Now, the pub business model is all about leveraging profit from higher rents charged to licencees rather than brewers supporting pubs to generate alcohol sales. The result is an industry in decline. - Simon Davies writing in The Guardian​