First of all, an apology. I somewhat carelessly used an out of date Christmas advert on page 52 of the last edition. I hope that this did not cause anyone any confusion.
LONDON DRINKER AND THE J D WETHERSPOON ORGANISATION
I’m pleased to announce that, at their instigation, we have resumed the arrangement whereby we supply bulk copies of London Drinker to JDW for them to distribute directly to all of their outlets in Greater London. I want to make it clear that this transaction is financially neutral. We are charging JDW the cost of printing and transporting the magazines. We are not receiving, nor have we sought, any financial subsidy from them. We are very grateful for the additional coverage that their distribution network once again provides.
THE NUMBERS GAME
In his editorial, my good friend and colleague Geoff Strawbridge mentions the recent Office of National Statistics report into pub numbers. One finding that I thought was particularly sad was the decline of small pubs, defined as those employing fewer than ten people. They have fallen in number from 40,000 in 2001 to 24,000 today (overall, 52,000 to 39,000). On the other hand, the number of people employed in the trade has risen by 6% because of the dominance of larger pubs selling food. Geoff’s point about London is well illustrated. The Borough of Newham has experienced the worst loss in the country, going from 105 pubs in 2001 to 45 now. Barking and Dagenham nearby now has the fewest pubs per head of population nationwide: 0.93 pubs per 10,000 people. Of course, there may be demographic and cultural influences here. Go slightly west however and in Hackney, the opposite has happened with the number of pubs increasing from 155 in 2001 to 185 today. Again, there may be demographic and cultural influences here as well, but rather different ones. It would be interesting to know how many pubs appear in both totals.
PUBS CODE ADJUDICATOR
I commend to you the ‘Pubs and Pubmen’ column in the 14-21 December edition (1485) of Private Eye. In particular, I salute its subject, Gary Murphy, the licensee of Ye Olde Mitre in Barnet who has decided to take legal action against the Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA) and has been raising the necessary funds through crowdfunding. The appeal has now closed but was on target at the last report. Gary has expressed thanks for any support given.
Gary’s situation is complicated but it has its history in what many see as a serious misinterpretation of the Pubs Code by the PCA. If a tenant wishes to move to a ‘market rent only’ (MRO) lease, the point at which he or she does it is when their rent comes up for review. The rent review itself is usually agreed in advance so the pub owning businesses (POBs) have adopted the tactic of charging the new rent from the first day possible while stalling on the negotiations for the MRO, which is usually lower. If the MRO is eventually agreed, it takes effect from the date of agreement so the POB has been able collect the higher rent in the meantime. The delay is often around six months and has been known to be up to two years. Another tactic is to use the dispute clause in most existing tenancy agreements to take the tenant to binding arbitration, thus obliging them to incur legal costs amounting in some cases to around £10,000. Sometimes the financial pressure simply forces the tenant to abandon their MRO request. This hardly serves to enforce the code’s guiding principle that tied tenants should be no worse off than free-of-tie ones.
Gary in particular did not want the details of his arbitration award published, even in redacted form, because that would appear to present it as good practice which in his opinion it was not. His lawyer shares that view.
The Pubs Code is, of course, up for review at the end of March. Recently Kelly Tolhurst, the minister responsible for the PCA, was asked about it in the House of Commons. She replied, as reported in the Morning Advertiser, “We are currently working out how we will carry out the review, and, under statutory regulation, we need to do that by the end of March. Of course we understand some of the concerns that have been raised by people who have been affected; we will take account of their views, and I will ensure that those views are heard.” We will see.
MORE FUNDING FOR COMMUNITY PUBS
CAMRA may be giving them awards (see page 26) but the More Than a Pub initiative is to receive an extra £2.2 million in funding this summer from Power to Change, an independent lottery funded charitable trust that supports and develops community businesses in England. More Than a Pub was set up in 2016 with £3.6 million of funding. It is also backed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and others such as Co-operative and Community Finance, Pub is the Hub, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) and, of course, CAMRA. The programme is led by the Plunkett Foundation in collaboration with Key Fund who offer practical help such as an advice line, events, workshops, peer-to-peer study visits and business development advice. Some 96 pubs have opened under the scheme since 2016. Tom Stainer, now CAMRA’s chief executive, said, “We’ve seen countless examples of pubs that have been saved by committed campaigners who recognise just how valuable a local is to an area. Often it is the last remaining public space and provides a vital place for people to meet and socialise. Once saved, these pubs are often completely transformed and revitalised and we’re seeing increasing numbers of community pubs nominated for national CAMRA awards such as the Pub of the Year, which is to be celebrated.” Brigid Simmonds OBE, the chief executive of the BBPA, commented, “Pubs are at the heart of our communities and play a vital role in our lives. Sadly though, too many are closing their doors for good. The More Than a Pub programme will boost community pubs across the UK and help those where there is the most impact of pub closures. The pub is far more than just a place to drink and the More Than a Pub programme will also aid the work of other initiatives such as Pub is the Hub to show how valuable our local pubs are.” Well said, you might think, but how many of the pubs that More Than a Pub has saved and hopefully will continue to save were closed in the first place by BBPA members?
THE ORCHARD PROJECT
The crowd funding initiative mentioned in the last edition was a success and I am pleased to report that the Project reached their target plus a bit more, with over 300 investors. There was good coverage of this by the National Association of Cidermakers and an article in the Evening Standard.
Ian White
PARLIAMENTARY PUB OF THE YEAR
I must have missed this at the time but back in July 2018, the All-Party Parliamentary Pub Group (APPG) launched a new competition, the Parliamentary Pub of the Year. Its purpose is to acknowledge the important role that pubs play in the life of the nation and the value that they bring to local communities and economies. Each of our 650 MPs could nominate one pub in their constituency (although some may not have done so). Many MPs asked their constituents to help with this. Each pub then needed to submit a short video about themselves, to be viewed by a panel of judges who then selected regional finalists. The winner was due to be announced on 15 January. Toby Perkins, the chair of the APPG, said, “Pubs are crucial to our communities as well as to our economy. Britain’s pubs employ over 1 million people and pay around £9 billion in taxes. It is so important that we support our much loved locals”. The Alexandra in Wimbledon, local MP Stephen Hammond’s nomination, was the regional winner for London although, despite what was reported in certain quarters, it has never been CAMRA South West London branch’s Pub of the Season because they don’t have one. I will let you know who won in the next edition.
NEW EUROPEAN UNION FOR CRAFT BEER
Readers will be aware that the European Beer Consumers Union, in which CAMRA plays a prominent role, links most of the consumer groups that represent beer drinkers across Europe. The brewers have now decided to do something similar. Led by the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), organisations from France, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Netherlands and the Czech Republic have come together to form the Independent Brewers of Europe (IBE) which will represent and promote some 2,000 small brewers both politically and commercially in matters such as regulation, taxation and market access where that is obstructed by the multinationals. Mike Benner, the chief executive of SIBA, said, “As the UK’s exit from the EU draws closer I’m pleased that we will be able to work with groups similar to SIBA to the commercial benefit of our members, sharing best practice and ideas to help develop the sector for all.”
BLUE BELL, YORK
I’m glad to say that this story has, more or less, ended satisfactorily. Landlord John Pybus has been given a further six year lease by Patron/Punch, so that this idiosyncratic little pub with its historic interior is safe for now. Well done to all concerned who campaigned for this result. While we are in the area, the York Brewery, which was placed in administration along with its parent company, Mitchell’s of Lancaster, in December, has been purchased by the Black Sheep Brewery, along with three of York’s pubs. Forty jobs have been saved.
GUILD AWARDS
The British Guild of Beer Writers held their annual dinner in November during which their awards for 2018 were presented. Congratulations go to John Keeling, recently retired from Fuller’s, and Jaega Wise, head brewer at Wild Card Brewery, who were joint winners of the Brewer of the Year award. Guild chairman, Pete Brown, said, “Both John and Jaega are worthy recipients. John’s contribution to brewing has been immense, from championing traditional cask ale to creating contemporary crowd pleasers with craft brewers while also being an advocate for gender equality in the industry, appointing a woman head brewer to succeed him. Jaega has not only been producing outstanding beers but has also worked tirelessly to promote beer among the general public and built links with other drinks industries such as wine. Jaega has risen to become one of the most important voices of the industry and a champion of increasing diversity and promoting equality within it.”
BREWING RESILIENCE
Readers will recall that recently there were very serious wild fires in California. One outbreak, the Camp Fire, came very close to the Sierra Nevada (SN) brewery and several of their employees lost their homes. Overall it devastated 153,000 acres, destroyed 13,000 homes and took 85 lives. Consequently, SN brewed a new beer, Resilience Butte County Proud IPA, with all of the proceeds going to the Camp Fire Relief Fund. They wrote to other breweries across the USA as well, asking them to do the same. An amazing 1,400 agreed to do so. They also contacted the suppliers of the raw ingredients to ask for their support in the form of donations of materials. SN’s hope was to get Resilience IPA in taprooms all over the USA to create a solid start to the long haul in securing their community’s future.
DRINKING RESPONSIBLY. . .
From the sublime to the . . . Well, make your own mind entrepreneur, Shed Simove, whose previous ideas have included inflatable, dummy speed cameras, has launched a range of bottled beers called ‘Responsibly’. No doubt you can see where this is leading . . . His beers were brewed for him by an anonymous brewer (but known to be a SIBA member) and are in the 3.5% to 4% ABV range which Mr Simove claims is lower than the average, which he says is 4% to 6% ABV. Consequently he claims that you can now actually drink ‘Responsibly’. The Portman Group, the industry-funded watchdog for alcohol advertising, are not amused. They have accused him of “undermining the responsible drinking message”. They told him that “by calling a product ‘Responsibly’, you are undermining the responsible drinking message that the alcohol industry uses to communicate with consumers and replacing it with a call to action to drink your product.” Mr Simove responded, “It’s brilliantly and amusingly contradictory. That said, if I have to change the label on my beer to say ‘Please drink Responsibly responsibly’ to satisfy the industry watchdog, then I will consider that.”
Compiled by Tony Hedger unless otherwise stated