Tag Archives: pubcos

The Voice

Mulholland hails victory for tenant landlords after Government u-turn

By The Voice | Wed 3rd February 2016 - 9:19 am

The Casked CrusaderRemember back in 2014, Greg Mulholland and others secured a Government defeat to give tenant landlords the right to request a fair rent and end the beer tie?

Unsurprisingly, the Government did what it could to put as many obstacles in the way of landlords seeking that fair rent as it could. Sure, they could have it, as long as the pubco could increase the rent at the end of the year. They’ve had to u-turn on that now.

Pub champion Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland (known in some quarters as the Casked Crusader) has long fought for the Market Rent Only (MRO) option, said that the u-turn was a major victory against a Government which has consistently refused to support landlords to get a fair deal.

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Caron Lindsay

Mulholland accuses pubcos on cask ale

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th January 2016 - 4:55 pm

The Casked CrusaderWe know that Greg Mulholland valiantly stands up to the big pubcos and was part of a very successful move to give tenants more rights which resulted in one of the few Commons Government defeats of the last Parliament.

In yesterday’s Times (£), he accused the pubcos of passing on costs of duty to their tenants that they didn’t have to pay themselves.

The Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West believes that the pubcos are taking advantage of the agreement between HMRC and the brewers that duty need not be paid on, for example, four to six pints in a firkin containing 72 pints of ale.

He said that some pubcos were routinely charging their tied tenants for the full 72 pints, including the duty element, taking no account of the “undrinkable” portion. The recharging of duty on ale on which no duty had been paid was “potentially a criminal matter”.

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NewsHound

Gareth Epps to stand for Liberal Democrats against Community Pubs minister at the General Election

By NewsHound | Sat 7th February 2015 - 3:30 pm

Gareth EppsLong standing Liberal Democrat, Glee Club MC, CAMRA member and anti-pubco campaigner Gareth Epps has been selected to fight the seat of Keighley in Yorkshire at May’s General Election. Gareth has sought out this seat as the current incumbent is the community pubs minister Kris Hopkins. He highlighted all the reasons why he was, shall we say, dissatisfied with Hopkins’ performance in a blog post n November:

Mr Hopkins has been given evidence by among others CAMRA locally and nationally that the Article 4 system is not working. The farcical scenes at Wokingham Council where under legal threat from Tesco, officers asked councillors to rescind an Article 4 they had only just granted, illustrate this perfectly. He is siding with the pubcos who are flogging pubs like those in Cuckfield and Earley, and ignoring communities.

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Nick Love

Opinion: We can revolutionise the UK pub industry

By Nick Love | Mon 2nd June 2014 - 9:05 am

The Vine Beer FestivalIf the Lib Dems are sincere about the “fairer society” as part of our slogan or elevator pitch or whatever you want to call it, then there is something tangible we can deliver in this current parliament that would have a direct and profound effect on many people’s lives.

We are in the midst of a major offensive against the insidious practices of the large national pub companies (pubcos), with CAMRA, politicians and other consumer groups petitioning the government for wide reaching legislation that would revolutionise the pub industry in the UK for the first time for decades.

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Posted in Op-eds | 14 Comments
Caron Lindsay

The Sun’s new superhero: Greg Mulholland, the Casked Crusader

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 10th May 2013 - 10:35 am

The Casked Crusader

 

Liberal Democrats have long known about Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland’s efforts to protect the Great British Pub. Now, the Sun has caught on to his work and interests and, today, have dubbed him The Casked Crusader, illustrated in this fetching portrait. In this article, entitled Scandaleous, they quote him as saying:

The pubco model is a scam. No one has got to grips with it — it’s a corporate scandal as big as Libor or Enron but no one’s even probing it.

What I’m saying is, enough is

…

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Ed Davey

Ed Davey writes… Glass half full – or half empty?

By Ed Davey | Mon 28th November 2011 - 9:54 am

My announcement last week on pubs hasn’t won me or the Government three cheers from the likes of CAMRA or Fair Pint. Yet I believe it is a notable success for tenants and lessees across the country – and time will prove it so.

For the pubcos have till Christmas to make their Codes of Practice legally binding – so tenants and lessees can enforce their rights – and they know that if they don’t, Parliament would be very happy to make it legally binding for them.

Coupled with the other reforms we negotiated from the pubcos and brewers, real change has …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 36 Comments
Alex Foster

Battle of the emergency motions

By Alex Foster | Wed 9th September 2009 - 4:23 pm

Conference these days includes slots that are left blank when the agenda is published, and that can be filled later by topics that become evident at a later date.

The deadline for – well pretty much everything, actually, including emergency motions, amendments, appeals, questions and so on – was yesterday.

LDV is aware of two emergency motions that have been doing the rounds asking for support. Firstly there’s one insisting that social services remain accountable to local people through local councils. A government paper launched on the 14th July suggested the creation of a national care body to take some …

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