He made the call following a statement from the Business Secretary Vince Cable earlier this week on the Government’s plans for cracking down on executive pay.
Mulholland welcomed the commitment by the Government to force companies to have binding votes on executive pay by shareholders but has called for the rules to be broadened to take into account key sectors of the economy, including the pubcos.
Mulholland has been a constant critic of the tenanted pubcos and in particular of Enterprise Inns chief executive Ted Tuppen.
“The majority of people affected by the business model of the pub companies are the tenants and licensees and they should therefore have a say over the pay of executives. Pub tenants and licensees must be able to confront those who control the day to day running of their businesses.
“The history of the pubco model is one of the most shameful ‘casino capitalism’ stories, ranking alongside the banking collapse, with greedy property speculators overvaluing pubs leading to multi billion pound debts, misery for licensees and pub closures up and down the country. Despite this, some leading pubcos executives have continued to pay themselves huge salaries and bonuses, which is outrageous. It simply isn’t acceptable, or moral, to be rewarding executives for failure.
“If the Government is serious about tackling crony capitalism then they should stop turning a blind eye to the pubco model, and should commit to a review into self-regulation, which Parliament has already backed.”