Political Meddling in the Licensed Trade

Since I bought my pub in 1983, successive governments of both political persuasions have wreaked havoc on the pub trade.

The Beer Orders, introduced by the Tories in 1996, was seen at the time to be releasing the stranglehold of the Big Six brewers of the day, who controlled over 75% of the beer trade. Brewers were ordered to reduce their tied estates to 2000 outlets.

This was retrospective legislation, as the brewers had done nothing illegal. Political intention was well-meant and backed by CAMRA, but the much larger swathes of pubs owned by the pub companies that have evolved are arguably a much worse scenario than the old brewery estates.

The Beer Orders has been removed from the Statute Book by New Labour and at time of writing the two biggest pub companies control some 20,000 ‘tied’ pubs between them and don’t brew so much as a drop of beer.

Punch and Enterprise Inns, both of which are funded by venture capitalists, own about a third of the pubs in the UK. Is this an acceptable situation ?

The majority of the outlets owned by ‘Pubcos’ are rented out to tenants. Usually, the tenant must purchase all draught products through the landlord at higher prices than they would pay on the open market. Pubco tenants should be free to buy whatever they want from who they want and simply pay rent.

This contrasts with the position of brewery tenants, as their landlord has a vested interest in selling their own product and keeping the brewery viable. Regrettably, brewers have sometimes abused this tie and undermined their tenants by selling their ‘tied’ ales to third parties at much lower prices.

Tied brewery tenants should have access to the lowest price band from their landlord, otherwise they should be free of tie.

For 25 years I paid about £30 for a 3-year pub licence to the Licensing Magistrates. Then New Labour got in on the act and turned licensing into a bureaucratic monolith.

Local magistrates had successfully controlled licencing for over 600 years but Tony Blair decreed that it should be handed over to (reluctant) local authorities. My council licence now costs £295 a year and yet the magistrates did a much better job than the council for a fraction of the cost.

Licensees are now faced with much tougher penalties for serving under-age customers, but young people are maturing quicker and there are no national ID cards in place for landlords to inspect.

A pub landlord can be heavily fined for inadvertently selling alcohol to a 17 year old girl who looks 23 in makeup, whilst for their part the authorities are overseeing huge illegal sales of ‘Class A’ drugs inside their heavily fortified prisons.

Enough said.

In my opinion, pubs should be thrown a lifeline as closures are at a record high.

Not many of the ruling classes seem use our pubs, so they are perhaps oblivious to the unique heritage that we have in our public houses.

• Licensing should be returned to the control of the Magistrates.
• Non-brewing landlords should not be allowed to tie their tenants in any way.
• Pubcos and brewers should be forced to reduce the size of their estates to the 2000 figure which was deemed big enough for the old brewery estates.
• Brewers should be forced to sell beer to their tenants at their lowest price band.
• Some form of nationally acceptable ID should be introduced to prevent underage drinking and with this in place licensees should be stripped of their licence if they repeatedly sell to under 18s.

And finally, where there is only one pub left in a local area, change of use should never be allowed. A village without a pub is just a soulless collection of houses. And let us not forget that a pub is also a place of employment in the community.

There is always a good operator out there somewhere who can turn a failed pub into a success story.

Hugh Price
Tynemouth Lodge Hotel