Justice for Licensees protests outside Parliament over high charges
Justice for Licensees staged a protest outside Parliament yesterday (7 December) against "unfairly high beer and rent prices" imposed on licensees by the major pubcos.
The pub protest group, backed by the Unite union and trade associations, called on the Government to implement an immediate Competition Commission inquiry into the business model of the big pub firms.
Speaking to Caterer at the protest yesterday, Justice For Licensees leader Inez Ward said: "The consensus is that a Competition Commission inquiry will be the only way that this situation will be resolved once and for all."
Justice For Licensees also called on the Government to enforce a statutory code of practice on pub companies, in a bid to make the way the industry works fairer.
"In 2004, one of the recommendations by the Trade and Industry Select Committee was a voluntary code on the industry. Pubcos have failed miserably in that so we want the government to impose a statutory code on them," Ward said.
Bill Sharp, a representative of the Guild of Master Victuallers, who also attended the protest added: "It is hard out there for people at the moment and until pub companies cut their margins as licensees are having to, it is not going to get any better. The price people are paying for beer is too much."
The event took place ahead of a follow-up evidence session by the Business Innovation and Skills Committee (formerly the Business & Enterprise Committee) today, which aims to examine developments in the industry since it released its report on pub companies in May this year.
The May report concluded that supply ties operated by pubcos could be anti-competitive and may have "a detrimental effect on the public house market" and called for the matter to be investigated by the Competition Commission.
However, so far no investigation has been implemented.
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By Neil Gerrard
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