CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has welcomed today’s Government announcement* of plans for a Pubs Adjudicator which will ensure that publicans are treated fairly and will crack down on cases of inflated rents and excessive beer prices charged to publicans.
CAMRA’s Head of Communications Tom Stainer said:
“We are delighted that after our 10 year campaign the Government is now introducing a Pubs Adjudicator to protect the nation’s pubs. With 28 pubs closing a week it is vital that publicans, who are on the frontline of keeping our valued community pubs open, are given protection from heavy handed business practices from the big pubcos.
“Publicans could see the price they pay for beer fall by up to 60 pence a pint** if the Adjudicator forces the big pubcos to match open market prices. A 60 pence a pint saving would be a huge boost in the battle to keep pubs open and could lead to cheaper pub prices for customers.”
“While we urge the Government to go further by introducing guest beer and market rent only options for tied publicans, today’s announcement is great news for publicans and pub goers alike. Over the last decade many thousands of pubs have been lost as big pub companies have squeezed them out of existence with sky-high rents and beer prices.”
*CAMRA’s above statement is in response to the Government press release, which can be read here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/publicans-to-get-a-fairer-deal
**CAMRA comparison of pubco tied price lists and free of tie price lists indicate that tied publicans can be charged around 60p more a pint than open market prices