Fair Pint welcomes Licensing Minister's words

February 24, 2010: The Fair Pint Campaign has welcomed comments from Gerry Sutcliffe, the Licensing Minister, in which he said that the tied pub business model was clearly a competition issue and he believed that there were problems with the model which need to be addressed.

During the debate in Westminster Hall, called by the Conservative MP Nigel Evans, a number of MPs spoke about how the beer tie and the pubco business model was making it difficult for publicans in their constituencies to make a living.

Concluding the debate for the Government, Mr Sutcliffe said the tie was a competition issue and that his concerns about the tie where shared with ministers in other departments. He rejected the argument of the British Beer and Pubs Association (BBPA) that the tie wasn’t an issue and that there are problems which need to be addressed.

He also offered support to the Campaign for Real Ale's (CAMRA) appeal against the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) view that the pub tie wasn’t distorting competition in the market, saying: “I think that the route that the Campaign for Real Ale has taken is the right one.”

Steve Corbett, spokesman for Fair Pint, said: “The minister’s words show that the Government has seen through the BBPA’s tactic of pretending to be the champion of pubs whilst trying to hide the fact that the use of the tie to extract unsustainable levels of income from their tied estates by its pubco members is one of the main causes of pub failures.

“It is clear that the Government now accept that there is a problem and there is a need for effective intervention into the market. Despite the success of CAMRA’s recent appeal against the OFT, we believe that, given the record of the OFT , the only way in which ministers will see the anti-competitive practices in the pub sector being properly addressed is through a ministerial reference to the Competition Commission. Fair Pint will continue to push ministers for a reference.”