On 22 March, with the support of CAMRA, the Forum of British Pubs (FBP) has launched a campaign to ‘Reform Regulation 7’ of the Pubs Code.
Aimed at protecting tied pub tenants, Regulation 7 acknowledges situations where there has been an unforeseen fundamental change in the trade of a pub, enabling the tenant to have its rent reassessed to help the pub to remain viable. Rents are usually reviewed every five years, but the Regulation states that when a ‘trigger event’ has occurred, the tenant can accelerate the review.
However, that regulation defines a ‘trigger event’ as one that ‘must be unlikely to impact all pubs in England and Wales’, and so the large pub owning groups covered by the Code can claim that COVID should not be regarded as a trigger and therefore ignore requests for early rent assessments.
The Campaign calls on both the Small Businesses Minister and the Pub Code Adjudicator to support an amendment to the Code such that Regulation 7 can be invoked by an event that does indeed have the capacity to affect all pubs, such as the current pandemic.
Founder of the Forum of British Pubs, Dave Mountford, explained, “It is clearly in the country’s interest for pubs, currently impacted so badly by the COVID crisis that they may well not open again, to have the opportunity of a rent reassessment right now. But the conditions set out in Regulation 7 of the 2016 Pubs Code give the pubcos the ability to reject this. In conjunction with CAMRA we are seeking an immediate amendment to the Regulation so that COVID is regarded as a ‘trigger event’ which could well save many of the 10,500 tied tenant pubs in our communities.”
A group of 25 MPs led by Tracy Brabin (Member for Batley and Spen), and the Labour Party candidate for West Yorkshire Mayor, has made the argument clear in writing to Small Business Minister, Paul Scully MP. “What should have been the lifeline for tied pubs across the country is no more than a bad insurance policy, one that never pays out no matter how deserving the claim. By simply removing this one line, tied pub tenants could pay rent proportionate to their current turnover, and would stand a fighting chance of achieving profitability during the incredibly difficult months ahead.”
In association with the Forum of Private Business, FBP was set up last year specifically to campaign for fair treatment of tenants in the regulated pub company sector, to get a united voice heard and positive changes made. It has a website: www.forumofbritishpubs.com.
Geoff Strawbridge