Greg Mulholland MP, co-ordinator of the campaign group who tabled the original MRO clause, said the Business of Innovation & Skills department had promised it would “engage in a dialogue” and share any legal or practical concerns they had with the wording of Clause 42 – but it has failed to do either.
The campaign group also claims it has spotted a flaw in the Government’s proposed new clause and errors in the revised process. It said this relates to a "technical drafting point where two different points about application of the market rent only option conflict with each other".
It has called on the Government to withdraw their amendment and instead agreed to sit down with representatives from the group to “work through any issues” – otherwise “pro-pub peers will be called upon to throw out the Government amendment, along with former Marston’s Director, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbots’ amendments at Grand Committee”.
Mulholland said he is concerned that lobbying from pub companies and the British Beer & Pub Association will “lead to a repeat of what happened when the Beer Orders were watered down”. He claims that pub companies are seeking changes to the working of the clause “in order to have loopholes to exploit and avoid having to be bound by the statutory code and the MRO option”.
'Acted in bad faith'
Mulholland said: “The Government have acted in bad faith over this. They said they accepted the will of the House and would work with MPs and the Fair deal for Your Local campaign on making the clause workable, yet without even having the courtesy to tell me, they have tabled an amendment wiping out Clause 42, which was voted through as the democratic will of the House of Commons.
“Having been defeated on this by a majority of MPs, you would have thought they would have had the sense to work with me, the author of Clause 42 and the Fair Deal for Your Local campaign. Instead and inevitably, by presenting a new clause as a fait accompli, we will oppose the Government’s ill-advised and poorly executed plans to try to change and water down the Market Rent Only option.
“I hope that they learn this lesson and now act in good faith and agree to withdraw their amendment and work with us to seek agreement before Lords Report Stage, otherwise we will seek to defeat them again”.
'Attempt to bulldoze'
Simon Clarke, of the Fair Pint Campaign and a steering group member of Fair Deal for Your Local, said: “This is an attempt to bulldoze through amendments without the dialogue and consultation promised. In the House of Lords, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, in answer to Lord Snape's intervention, assured the peers that " ...we are always discussing these issues and changes with tenants..." yet these proposed changes and the replacement of clause 42 were not discussed with tenant groups and seem contrary to the will of parliament and the promises made to the House of Commons by Government that the new Market Rent Only option clause would not be contested.”