Andrew Pring: The UK has too many pubs

The UK has an excess of pubs and many bad ones are run by illiterate and innumerate people, a respected industry observer has told MPs.

Andrew Pring, a journalist who has written about the trade for more than a decade, delivered his stinging verdict at a meeting in Parliament last night organised by Tory think-tank the Bow Group.

Pring argued that a quarter of pubs simply do not "cut the mustard" and many of these are run by "people who are illiterate and innumerate".

He pointed the finger at the pubcos for allowing people like this to take on pubs and charge "vastly inflated prices".

But he added: "We will still lose many thousands of pubs, regardless of what the government does. We are an over-pubbed nation. The pub's USP has long since disappeared. All the technological developments have worked to the detriment of the pub."

He later said: "There is a whole generation who have grown up who don't see the pub as a place to socialise."

And he added: "Pubs are dying because too many people don't understand modern retail."

However, Pring said there were 25 per cent of outlets that were "great pubs", and the rest which were "not brilliant, but still the backbone of the industry."

But Mike Benner, CAMRA's chief executive, later strongly rejected the claim the UK has too many pubs. "I fundamentally disagree with the argument that we are over-pubbed," he said.

"Some pubs are badly run, of course they are. But you can turn a badly-run pub into a well-run pub.

"We have a situation where talented entrepreneurs are not attracted to the trade because of some of the pubcos. We need structural support from the government, so people can make enough money out of running a pub."

Asked about the pubco situation, Community Pubs minister Bob Neill pointed to the re-opening of the upcoming Business Innovation and Skills committee inquiry. He said there was a "case to be made" over the issue but that it would be "premature" to predict the outcome. He also said there was no silver bullet to cure the industry's ills.

Pring stressed the views he expressed were his own personal opinions and not those of the BII, where he is editor of the group's members' magazine.