Thousands of tied pub tenants will be protected from unfair rents under a statutory code of practice announced by the government today.
The new rules, which include the right to request a rent review after five years, will be enforced by an independent adjudicator with the power to carry out investigations and impose sanctions on companies judged to be in breach of the code.
Tenants will also have the right to view the information pub owning companies use to assess their rents in order to create greater transparency. Tenants of companies with over 500 tied pubs will have the additional right to request a ‘parallel free-of-tie rent assessment’ to compare their rent with free-of-tie tenants.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says that tenants of large pub companies have struggled for too long, with over half earning less than the minimum wage. The self-regulatory approach hasn’t worked, he adds, and the new rules will ensure fairer treatment for tied tenants.
Business Secretary Vince Cable says; “the introduction of a statutory code will make sure that tied tenants get an accurate assessment of how better off they could be and the new independent adjudicator would make sure pub companies are forced to act to redress the situation if they aren’t behaving responsibly.”
