Pubco bullying has been 'eradicated', says BII's Dixon

A senior BII figure has claimed that pubco "bullying" in rent negotiations has been largely stamped out.

Phil Dixon, BII's industry adviser, argued that "98.4 per cent" of bullying had been stopped, mainly due to the Pubs Independent Rent Review Scheme (PIRRS).

Speaking at yesterday's British Beer & Pub Association Key Issues Forum in Burton, he said: "It's eradicated bullying… there's the odd person who you find, but it's hard to change the habits of a lifetime. There are still pockets out there."

Last year MPs on the Business and Enterprise select committee suggested there was evidence of a culture of bullying and initimidation in some parts of the industry.

Dixon said the PIRSS scheme, set up to give licensees a low-cost way of challenging rent levels, has had 70 "serious enquiries" in its first year. Of these five have gone "all the way".

Upward-only rent reviews had mainly disappeared, he said, but claimed Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns still operated this system on free-of-tie leases. "That does not sit well with me," he said.

On pubcos submitting their codes of practice for BII approval, Dixon said: "I can safely say our industry will be a better place with the introduction of these codes."

On pubco business development managers (BDMs), he argued they needed to be given more chance to help develop businesses as they were currently just "firefighting".

And on the beer tie, Dixon said the issue was not the tie itself but "the price people pay". "If you are going to defend the tie, you have to have sustainable businesses," he said.