Parliament needs to act to save 4,000 local pubs which good pub guide says are likely to close next year
Sky high rents means a pint is 80p higher than justified by inflation and changes in taxes since 1987 and is pricing pubs out of the market and they have closed in droves and no money is left for investment for those still open says GMB
GMB, the union for tied pub tenants, commented on the report from Good Pub Guide 2014 that 4,000 pubs are likely to close in the next year.
Steve Kemp, GMB political officer, said:
“The report identifies that there are thousands of pubs that have not been refurbished and where the offering to consumers is out dated.
"The report does not identify the root causes as to why these pubs that survived the depression and the war have been starved of investment. Action to address the root causes rather than closing them is the answer for staff and for local communities.
"Highly indebted property companies own over half of Britain's pubs. These charge sky high rents to tied tenants of pubs pay interest on massive financially engineered debts. These debts are held mainly by bondholders in offshore tax havens.
"Interest payments on these huge debts have to be paid each week before the tenant pours a pint and regardless of whether s/he can make ends meet or not.
"To pay these sky high rents a pint of lager is on average 80p per pint higher and ale is 65p per pint higher than justified by inflation and like for like changes in taxes since 1987.
"This is pricing pubs out of the market and they have closed in droves. No money is left for investment which is why the pubs still open have not been modernised.
"BIS has promised that Parliament will legislate a free of tie option with tenants able to buy products on the open market and pay a fair rent for the building. The aim is to lower sky high rents charged by pubcos. "We need Parliament to legislate the option to allow tenants to buy products on the open market and pay a fair rent for the building.”
