Parliamentary launch for Fair Pint campaign

May 14, 2008: The Fair Pint campaign was launched in Parliament yesterday, with Tim Farron calling on fellow MPs to support its objectives.

The campaign calls for the Business and Enterprise Committee to review whether the recommendations of the 2004 Trade and Industry Select Committee report on public house ownership have been met.

About 24,000 British pubs (37%) are owned by pubcos. Tied landlords have no choice but to buy their beer, as well as some other supplies, from the pubco, even though they can possibly buy the same beer cheaper elsewhere.

Fair Pint says that the dominance of the large pubcos over the pub market has resulted in an unfair and uncompetitive arrangement for tied pub landlords and consumers alike. Pubs are currently closing at a rate of 27 pubs per week, and in 2006-7 bankruptcies among pub landlords increased seven-fold.

Tied pub landlords also have to rent their pub and home from their pubco, with rents which are profit related. Fair Pint says that upward-only rent reviews and beer that has to be bought at inflated prices from the pubco places enormous pressure on many tied landlords who struggle to make a living. Huge numbers of landlords are simply being forced out of the market and few consumers understand why they are paying more for their pint, says the campaign team.

Brian Jacobs, a member of the campaign steering group, said: ”We have been heartened by the level of support we have received from publicans around the country, Parliamentarians and trade bodies.

"Even though we are only at the beginning of our campaign, we are confident that fairness and a need for a level playing field will win through in the end.

"It is time for the pubco model to be reviewed to reflect what is really going on in 2008. It is clear that so many tied publicans are struggling, not just because of the smoking ban, beer duty or cut-price booze in supermarkets, but because they are tied.”

Among the MPs at the launch were Sir Nicholas Winterton (Conservative, Macclesfield), Mike Weir (Scottish Nationalist, Angus), Anne Main (Conservative, St Albans); Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat, Portsmouth South), Adrian Bailey (Labour, West Bromwich West) and Jeff Ennis (Labour, Barnsley East and Mexborough).