BBPA accused of 'obfuscation and hostility'

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has been accused of resorting to "obfuscation and hostility" in regard to developing a more transparent method of calculating rents.

The Business Skills and Innovation Committee praised the work of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers in opening up its benchmarking scheme to the whole pub sector in order to provide a detailed picture of operating costs to assist in rent calculations.

It said this would be a "significant step forward".

It also welcomed the undertaking by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors to pursue the objective of a more open and transparent method of comparing and assessing rents.

However, it said: "The same cannot be said of the BBPA which has appeared to resort to resistance, obfuscation and hostility. We appreciate the fact that there are 'complexities' in the pub sector but the BBPA has had long enough to overcome these problems."

The BBPA also came under fire for refusing to talk with the Independent Pub Confederation (IPC).

Committee chairman Peter Luff said it was a "ludicrous" situation. "We expect the BBPA to engage with the IPC as a matter of urgency," the report said.

The Committee said it did not believe previous codes of practice had been "sufficiently robust" and accused the pubcos of a "history of evasiveness".

The BBPA was also heavily criticised for delaying publication of its Framework Code of Practice, which forced a delay in the Committee reporting.

"We are disappointed that it took until the end of January 2010 to publish the new BBPA Framework Code of Practice.

"We were given sight of a draft Code ahead of the evidence session in December 2009 and the difference between the draft and the published Codes appears to be minimal.

"This delay put back publication of our report as it was only fair to let other groups respond to it."