Pubco statutory code consultation receives 8,000 responses
The Government has received in excess of 8,000 responses during its consultation on establishing a statutory Code of Practice governing the relationship between pub companies and their tenants.
Minister for consumer affairs Jo Swinson said in a letter, published today alongside those responses, that the Government would "not rush into a decision" following the consultation.
This was in spite of the Government's original intention to publish its response to the consultation before the end of the year.
"We promised government intervention to address the unfairness in the relationship between pub companies and tenants and this remains our commitment. We also said that intervention would be proportionate and targeted and, in taking the time to process, evaluate and assess the excellent response to the consultation, that remains our goal. We will decide on the next steps very soon," she said.
Business secretary Vince Cable originally announced the consultation on putting the pub Industry Framework Code into statute in January this year. The aim was to regulate the relationship between pub companies and their tenants. Cable announced plans to install an independent adjudicator, as well as a new statutory code to look at the relationship between big pub companies and their licensees. Family brewer/pub companies are not expected to be affected because the changes will only apply to firms with 500 or more tied leases.
The consultation began shortly afterwards and ran until June this year.
Today, a government spokesman said: "There has been, and continues to be, a high level of interest in the consultation on pub companies and tenants. We received over 1,100 written responses and more than 7,000 responses to the online survey.
"It is a complex issue and we want to consider carefully all the evidence that has been presented to us. The evidence we're publishing today demonstrates the wide range of views on this issue, all of which we will take into account when we publish our response to the consultation."