CONSERVATIVE PUB CAMPAIGN WELL MEANT BUT DOES NOT ADDRESS KEY ISSUES - MULHOLLAND
March 1, 2009 1:30 PM
Greg Mulholland, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group and MP for Leeds North West, has written to Conservative Leader David Cameron to welcome the fact that the Conservatives have decide to join the campaign to save the British pub, but also to say that their campaign misses two key issues that must be addressed it they are serious about this - namely addressing the dominance of the giant Pubcos and the way the 'tie' is operated, and secondly the need to reforming planning law which must be changed if the rate of pub closures is to be halted.
Commenting Greg said:
"The Save the Pub group has members from all parties and we welcome all political parties making this a big issue. However just picking a couple of issues are ignoring others will not be sufficient to save the pub.
"We all know beer duty is too high and that supermarket pricing needs addressing, however just as important to stop pub closures is addressing the unhealthy dominance of the huge pub companies and reforming planning law that currently makes it very easy to shut pubs, even profitable pubs, just to make money from change of use or development."
Mr Mulholland has challenged David Cameron to right the wrongs of the Conservative introduced Beer Orders and address the market dominance of the huge PubCos that appeared after that change in the law:
"What we really need to hear from the Conservative party is how it plans to rectify the unfortunate aftermath of the Beer Orders it introduced and now truly introduce competition and choice into the sector and address the current very real concerns about the supply tie. The current system all too often works only for huge corporations and penalises the small business people that licensees are. This is not right and must be addressed"
Mr Mulholland also called on the Conservatives and all parties to listen to the voice of licensees:
"If any party is serious about support pubs and publicans, they must listen to licensees, pub customers and pub campaigners not just the voice of the big pub companies and breweries who unsurprisingly will only give part of the story. The voice of licensees still isn't heard even though they are those working in pubs are the majority of people working in this industry. It is time this changed.
"We need urgent action on all these key issues, otherwise the rising numbers of pubs shutting up shop will only get worse."
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