Campaigns

We have a very real opportunity to save the Great British Pub and we need you to get involved.

The Government backed beer and pubs in the recent Budget by abandoning plans for a beer duty hike and instead cutting beer duty for the first time in over 50 years. They are now building on their support for pubs by taking on the large pub companies who are exploiting pub licensees and putting the future of thousands of pubs at risk.

The fundamental problem is that the large pub companies are taking more than is reasonable from the profits of each pub– so licensees and pub goers alike suffer. A fair deal will result in the average tied pub being £4,000 better off annually

The Pubco Model

Around a third of pubs in theUKare owned by large Pub Companies – property companies who lease pubs out to tenants to run as their own business. These pubs are contractually obliged to buy their beer only from the Pubco preventing pub licensees buying on the open market – this is known as the beer tie.

Pubcos make huge excess profits by using the beer tie to force licensees and ultimately the consumer to pay high prices. Licensees can pay at least 50% more for beer than a free-of-tie publican. Alongside this pubco licensees often find themselves paying above market value rents and have no independent adjudicator to settle disputes.

Time for Reform

 The Government is now proposing a package of measures to deliver a fair deal for local pubs, with:

• A powerful new Code and a Watchdog to stop abuses by big pub companies
• A new choice for licensees to opt out of restrictive tied agreements and just pay a fair market rent to their pubco
• Fair rents and beer prices for tied publicans, allowing them to thrive

Pub companies with fewer than 500 pubs will be exempt from these proposals but must abide by a separate voluntary code.

If we succeed with this campaign we can expect better pubs, fairer prices and fewer pub closures.

Get Involved

Your support in getting us this far really has made all the difference.  However, the battle isn’t won yet and we now need to ensure the Government sees its plans through. To make the most of this opportunity there are three things you can do right now:

Ensure your voice is heard by taking five minutes to take part in the Government’s pubco reform survey

Help build the case for reform by sending in your own submission to the consultation. There’s ideas on what you could say on the campaign’s website

Sign up to be a Fair Deal for Your Local Campaign Supporter to hear more about the campaign and how you can get involved.

You have until 14^th June to take part.

 Please visit     www.fairdealforyourlocal.com

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We need your help to persuade your MP to support a fair deal for pubs tied to the large pub companies. This important issue is being debated and voted upon in Parliament on Thursday 12th January and we need your MP’s support. Please take 2 minutes to email your MP. The pre-written email asks your MP to VOTE FOR a Parliamentary Motion asking the Government to introduce meaningful reform of the large pub companies.

The Government has recognised the existence of “unfair practices” in the relationship between the large pub companies and their licensees along with the failure of the pub companies to deliver meaningful self regulation. The unfair practices adding pressure to many pubs include excessively high tied prices, unjustified rent calculations and misrepresentation. These unfair practices result in higher consumer prices and unnecessary pub closures.
Following years of campaigning by CAMRA, MPs, small business groups and many others the Business Minister set out proposals for self regulation last November. Unfortunately, these proposals have been widely castigated as naive, unenforceable and insubstantial. The Parliamentary Business Select Committee has secured a vote in Parliament in an attempt to force the Government to toughen up its approach.

This Government gave a clear commitment that failure by the pubcos to self regulate would result in robust Government intervention. Please help us to hold the Government to its word by asking your MP to vote in favour of the Parliamentary Motion on pub company reform being debated by MPs on Thursday 12th January.

Email your MP now.

Thank you for your ongoing support

Following a tireless campaign by CAMRA, a Parliamentary Select Committee has recognised that the big pub companies are slowly destroying countless valued pubs through excessive rental demands and inflated wholesale beer prices. Please take 2 minutes to contact your MP and make the Government act on the Committee’s response.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION

Please lobby your MP to sign EDM 1475

Beer duty has risen by over 26% in two years.

Yet despite these huge tax rises, the Chancellor doesn’t intend to stop here! He is currently planning a further seven per cent rise in beer duty in the Budget, on 23rd March. Such a huge increase in duty will add ten pence to the price of a pint – even after the 6p rise caused by increased VAT.  It will cause further pub closures and job losses – and undermine Government plans to boost growth/manufacturing.

The ‘Back The Pub’ campaign is asking that we lobby our MPs to sign an early day motion in parliament which is asking the Chancellor to think again.

It will literally take a few seconds of your time.  Please visit the ‘I’m backing the Pub’ website at www.backthepub.com and type your postcode into the ‘petition your MP’ box. This will create an email for you to send to your local MP – the key points will appear for you, to adapt if you wish. And by all means ask your own friends and contacts to join the campaign.