Loss Of Livelihood Of Brewery Tenants

EDM number 658 in 1990-91, proposed by Nigel Griffiths on 26/03/1991.

That this House notes with great concern the effect of the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry's efforts to bring down pub prices and widen choice by giving 11,000 tenants and managers the chance to buy or lease their own premises; notes that the exact opposite is happening; notes that individual landlords are not getting the chance to buy or lease their public houses because the big brewers are tripling their rents and imposing 20-year leases, asking exorbitant prices for the good pubs, and offering only those that are run-down at affordable prices, selling blocks of pubs to smaller brewers so that individual landlords are denied the right to buy, imposing penal penalties on landlords who fail to sell their barrel quota - a powerful disincentive to introducing guest beers as it virtually wipes out any profit from them - forcing tenant landlords to either become managers in the employ of the brewery or face eviction; and notes that due to these blatant and mercenary tactics, thousands of tenants and managers are losing their livelihoods and their homes, with some being driven to seek help from the social services.

This motion has been signed by a total of 49 MPs.