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Greg Mulholland: That is an interesting point. One of the problems with this debate is that that argument comes out. The big pub companies say, "You shouldn't abolish the tie." No one is talking about abolishing it; we are talking about reforming it to make it fair for the tenant and the customer. The inflated beer prices are bad for pub consumers and the unfair rents are closing pubs. It is not about...
Jason McCartney: I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. I have to declare an interest. I worked behind the bar in one of my local pubs on a recent Friday evening, celebrating British beer week. I am also a member of the all-party beer group. I echo the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Burton (Andrew Griffiths). In a pub, we have a safe environment; we have a landlord who is...
Adrian Bailey: ...that the existing framework code is weak, even though they are making it legally binding, but to date all the proposals for strengthening it seem to have come—surprise, surprise—from the British Beer and Pub Association. I cannot think of anything more likely to destroy confidence within the wider industry and among publicans than a code that has been supposedly strengthened on the...
Don Foster: ...the amendments that propose that the starting point for pubs should be an automatic requirement for four machines. The hon. Gentleman has received, as have I, an excellent briefing from the British Beer and Pub Association, which has drawn our attention to a number of concerns about not only the clause but some of the amendments about which we shall hear more detail from the Minister in a...
Mr Nick Hawkins: ...and 267 and the new clauses consequent thereon. When the Minister spoke on Tuesday I had the impression that he was talking about recent consultations that the Government had had with the British Beer and Pub Association. I was not alone in that. However, my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Cambridgeshire pointed out in a helpful intervention just before lunch that the Minister may...
Greg Mulholland: ...solution—for companies with 500 pubs or more. We did not envisage or call for a code for companies smaller than that. It is interesting that we have ended up here because the so-called British Beer and Pub Association, which is the mouthpiece for the pubcos, decided that it was a clever tactic to try to deflect any legislation by saying, “Oh no, we mustn’t have a two-tier system,”...
Lord Davies of Oldham: ...Sport (Richard Caborn) met the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions regarding Licensing. The participants are not listed. On the 9 March the Minister for Sport met Rob Hayward of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) to discuss licensing issues but a list of participants is not available. On 17 May the Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism (James Purnell) met Brigid...
Marcus Jones: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Young people can enter the beer and pub industry at the bottom by pulling pints behind the bar, an extremely important role, and work their way up within companies to become managers or work for pub companies and breweries. It can be an extremely fulfilling and constructive career for many. We should encourage the industry to take on more and more young people.
Bill Esterson: ...some time. The challenges faced by tied tenants have provided an opportunity for long discussions with publicans in my constituency, and MPs from across the House have had similar conversations with pub tenants and pub companies around the country. The relationship between pub companies and tied tenants has long been of concern to those of us who value our pubs. The average of four pub...
Bill Esterson: ...some time. The challenges faced by tied tenants have provided an opportunity for long discussions with publicans in my constituency, and MPs from across the House have had similar conversations with pub tenants and pub companies around the country. The relationship between pub companies and tied tenants has long been of concern to those of us who value our pubs. The average of four pub...
Lord Carter of Barnes: ...;Licensing Advisory Group Meeting— 22 September 2008. Attended by DCMS and representatives of the Association of Chief Police Offices, Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), British Hospitality Association, Business in Sport and Leisure (BISL), Working Men's Club and Institute Union and Committee of Registered Clubs Associations, Local...
Andrew Griffiths: I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and I enjoyed sampling a pint of Ginger Rodent in the Strangers Bar. It was particularly enjoyable as it was a penny less as a result of this Government’s measures. We should not underestimate the community pub. It is an important industry, and £620 million from beer exports came into our coffers as a result of the cut in beer duty last year. Beer...
Greg Mulholland: ...of the issue we are dealing with, because although it is often presented as complicated, it is a simple one: after years of self-regulation and twists and turns in this matter, the giant lease pub companies still continue to take far more than is fair or reasonable from pub profits. It is as simple as that; that is the issue that has to be dealt with. I will come on to address the point...
Greg Hands: My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. He has spoken well in all four of the debates, and he ties together the overall impact of Labour's mismanagement of the economy with reference to the beer and pub industry. The pub and bar trade is under pressure elsewhere too. A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to be hosted by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Devizes (Mr. Ancram) and...
Jane Ellison: ...bottles and cans have this information. On a market share based on alcohol by volume, 69.9% of bottles and cans have this information. In addition to unit and health information on bottles and cans, pub chains and retailers committed to providing unit and health information. This year, Ipsos Mori carried out an independent survey of whether the public saw such information. 27% of the...
Graham Evans: ...the debate and to my hon. Friends the Members for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) and for Gower (Byron Davies) for their speeches. Indeed, I pay tribute to Gower Gold, which is an excellent beer, and to Tribute; I look forward to visiting St Austell brewery in my capacity as chairman of the all-party beer group. I pay tribute to my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Burton...
Graham Evans: Was that a penultimate, or just a Charlie? I must confess that I have stopped many barrels of beer going sour over the years. Indeed, I met Mrs Evans in my local pub, The Church House inn in Bollington near Macclesfield, when I was a wee slip of a lad—I was 20-something—serving behind the bar. My mother worked in a pub, by brother and sisters worked in a pub and my father spent most of...
Nicholas Winterton: The beer tie is valuable and necessary in respect of small and family breweries, but damaging and unnecessary in respect of pub companies and larger breweries. Will the Minister ask the Office of Fair Trading to make a referral to the Competition Commission setting the bar far higher than in previous cases?
Laurence Robertson: I thank Mr. Speaker for awarding me this debate and the Minister for staying behind to reply to it. I say affectionately to the Minister that the pub industry and certain products in which it deals are close to his heart, as they are to mine. We share a number of interests, including horse racing and the odd social half hour in the bar downstairs. I am delighted that this Minister is replying...
Jonathan Djanogly: ...Hampshire (Sir George Young) and my hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury (Mr. Robertson) said in their own ways, pubs are often the centre of their communities. A third of UK adults socialise in a pub at least once a week and following the wholesale closure of our post offices in the past decade they are sometimes the last remaining amenity in small communities. All in all, the pub trade...
