Labour holding Parliamentary debate on pub statutory code
It is supporting calls for a free-of-tie option, open market rent reviews and an independent pubs adjudicator.
Toby Perkins MP, Labour’s shadow pubs minister, said: "We are demanding that ministers introduce a Pubs Bill in this year’s Queen’s Speech to give local pubs the protection they need and so that landlords get a fair deal.
'Dragging their feet'
"A broad coalition including CAMRA, business organisations and trade unions are backing a new statutory code with teeth. This week Labour is demanding that ministers stop dragging their feet at a time when 26 pubs are closing every week.
“A year ago, in response to pressure from campaigners and Labour, ministers said they’d take action but 12 months later they’ve failed to do. That’s why we need to see legislation brought forward this year.
"If the Tory-led Government fails to act, voters will know that only by voting Labour can they bring about the fairness that Britain’s much-loved pubs so desperately need."
The Government has delayed a decision on a statutory code while it considers the huge volume of consultation responses it received.
Opposition day debate motion on pub companies:
"That this House notes that it is two years since it passed the motion on pub companies on 12 January 2012; remains of the view that the BIS Select Committee was right to state that only a statutory code of practice which includes a mandatory rent only option for pub companies who own over 500 pubs, including an open market rent review and an independent adjudicator will resolve the contractual problems between the big pub companies and their lessees; notes that pub closures are increasing, believes that the government should now bring forward legislation to introduce a statutory code of the kind recommended by the BIS Select Committee without further delay, and by the Queen’s Speech 2014 at the latest, with the Bill receiving a Second Reading before the summer recess."
