John Healey urges more help for pubs

The Wentworth and Dearne MP has signed an Early Day Motion in Parliament which says the relationship between pub companies—known as pub-cos—and their tenants should be more flexible.

Mr Healey made similar recommendations when serving as pubs minister for the last Labour Government in March 2010 and said that it was important to act as nearly twice as many tied pubs were closing as free-of-tie-pubs.

Mr Healey said: “Pubs offer more than just a place to drink. In many communities they are a hub of social, recreational and charitable activity.

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“I don’t want to see more valued community pubs closing.

“It would help if rents were fairer and licensees had more choice about where they buy beer and other products.

“The industry has taken too long to put its house in order. It is a last resort, but the Government should start consulting on legislating for the changes needed as quickly as possible.”

The EDM calls for the implementation of the latest Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee recommendations.

Over the last few years, the committee has published a number of reports calling on pub-cos to change through tougher self-regulation.

The last Labour Government promised that if practices had not improved by June this year they would change the law.

And in June the BIS Select Committee launched an inquiry into whether previous recommendations had been heeded.

That report has now been published, and found that although industry Codes of

Practice had been updated, they were not sufficiently robust, implementation was “half-hearted” and some pub-cos were not complying.

It said that there had been “modest improvements” but that there were “deep-seated problems at the heart of the industry” so statutory regulation was now necessary.