Calder Valley MP ready to take on pub giants to secure better deal for landlords
Josh Fenton-Glynn wants to tackle problems faced by those running tied houses
Hello and welcome to The Calderdale Lead!
I hope you’ve all enjoyed a good week.
In today’s edition we’ve got a story about something very close to my heart - pubs!
I noticed a couple of weeks ago that Calder Valley MP Josh Fenton-Glynn stood up in Parliament and asked a question about the struggles of landlords working under PubCos.
It immediately piqued my interest and it seems Mr Fenton-Glynn is as passionate about saving the great British pub as I am.
Just for full disclosure, I will mention that I myself own a bar - The Beer Necessities in Todmorden for anyone interested - but what Mr Fenton-Glynn is proposing will have no effect on my business as it’s not a tied-house.
I’ve got full details below about the fight to put landlords first.
Plus, we’ve got details of a spat between West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin and a Calderdale councillor over the funding of Halifax’s Piece Hall venue.
So, on with the news…
‘Community living rooms’: Calder Valley MP wants to free up landlords to help pubs thrive
By Andrew Greaves
It’s a picture we’re all so used to seeing - an MP stood behind a bar pulling a pint to show they understand how pubs work.
But, somewhat refreshingly, Calder Valley MP Josh Fenton-Glynn was keen to avoid falling into the cliche when I met up with him this week.
It turns out Mr Fenton-Glynn, who once actually pulled pints at Hebden Bridge’s legendary Trades Club, has a real passion for pubs, or as he likes to call them ‘community living rooms’
So much so that he used a parliamentary question - to his neighbouring MP Kate Dearden, who is the Government’s minister for small businesses - to raise the behaviour of PubCos.
Now, for those who are not in the know, PubCos are companies that run pubs. Some of the PubCos have estates of more than 500 pubs and, depending on the deal a landlord or landlady has with his or her PubCo, they can insist on all products - beers, ciders, soft drinks etc - being purchased through them.
PubCos have been around since the Government in the 1980s broke up the monopoly that breweries had over pub ownership using something called the Beer Orders.
The Beer Orders in 1989 saw the Government order breweries that owned more than 2,000 pubs to sell off a large portion of their estate or release their tie, leading to about 11,000 pubs coming onto the market.
Companies were established to purchase these newly available pubs, often retaining the "tie" (forcing tenants to buy beer through them) but without being brewers themselves.
Today, there are thousands of pubs which are ‘tied’ into these types of deals and previous attempts by government to ensure fairness don’t appear to be working.
The Pub Code, introduced in 2016, does include a mechanism called the Market Rent Only (MRO) option, which gives tenants the right to request a new lease that allows them to buy products from any supplier at market prices.
This right is usually triggered by specific events, such as a rent review, a significant increase in the price of tied products, or a renewal of the tenancy.
To oversee compliance and resolve disputes, the government established the Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA), an independent office that provides a formal route for arbitration if a pub company fails to adhere to the code’s standards.
Mr Fenton-Glynn raised the issue of a pub in his constituency where the rent charged by PubCo Stonegate went from £800 per week to £1,700 per week just weeks after a six-month probationary period came to an end.
And research by The Calderdale Lead has revealed that landlords or tenants in many tied houses are forced to pay between £40 and £60 more per keg or cask of beer than those running bars or freehouses who are allowed to negotiate deals with suppliers.
And Mr Fenton-Glynn said: “This cannot be right. I see pubs as ‘community living rooms’ which are vital and we need to be helping landlords to thrive and survive.
“The behaviour of PubCos when it comes to putting up rents and tying landlords to buying their products from them is something that we need to look at.”
One of the other issues that tied houses face is not being able to offer a range of different products on their bar, something which Hebden Bridge-based brewery Vocation highlighted recently in a study was a reason for people visiting the pub less.
The research, which polled 2,000 adults, found almost four in five Brits (79%) said they would visit pubs more often if they had more exciting options, while 47% of 25–34-year-olds are actively seeking out new beers.
More than eight in ten (81%) said they would pay slightly more for a pint if pubs offered more variety on the taps.
Mr Fenton-Glynn is now keen to speak to landlords, breweries and operators not just in Calderdale but across the country as he looks to build a campaign to ensure a fairer deal for landlords.
To get in contact click here.
Reform UK councillor slapped down by West Yorkshire mayor over Piece Hall funding
By John Greenwood
West Yorkshire’s Mayor has been asked if she would take on responsibility for providing some financial support for Halifax’s historic Piece Hall.
Calderdale councillors recently debated the authority’s relationship with the Trust which runs the council-owned Piece Hall, in particular an annual grant of £225,000 to help with the costs.
The Grade I-listed former 18th century cloth hall is now a major tourist attraction bringing economic and cultural benefits to Halifax through businesses it houses and events including a summer concert season attracting some of music’s biggest names.
But some councillors have said this has to be balanced with challenges it faces to its budgets, some questioning whether the Piece Hall needs that amount of funding from the council’s coffers.
At a question-and-answer session with Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin at a meeting of the full Calderdale Council, Cllr Dan Sutherland said she had spoken throughout her tenure about the importance of the economy and culture, and had been able to secure a “fantastic settlement” financially from Government through devolution for the region.
But at the moment the Piece Hall was millions of pounds in debt to the council and there were concerns about its leadership and expectation a permanent subsidy would be expected from the council, he claimed.
Cllr Sutherland said: “You comment that the Piece Hall is an asset that is important to the whole region and gives, gives, gives – one of the issues we have in Calderdale is that in many ways, for many residents, it has taken, taken, taken.
“Considering the position you’re in to be able to influence the settlement and economic matters in the region, would you as Mayor be willing to consider taking on the sort of responsibility for support of the Piece Hall on an ongoing basis, so that this council can focus on these very difficult budget decisions that it has to manage?”
Mayor Brabin did not respond to the question but took issue with Cllr Sutherland over some of what he had said.
“If the Piece Hall didn’t exist, everybody would have wanted it, because it is phenomenal.
“There is nothing like it anywhere else in the country and, pound for pound, what it brings to this community is extraordinary.
“I don’t recognise what you are saying about the leadership, I really don’t.
“I don’t recognise the anxiety about the management of the Piece Hall – I know that they have a really experienced board, they are held to account by Calderdale.
“Through the leadership of this council and partners, you’ve created Europe’s finest live music venue,” she said.
Mayor Brabin said this included supporting local young people through training to look at careers in aspects of the industry.
That’s it for this edition, thanks for reading!
I’ll be back in your inbox on Sunday with another edition but don’t forget you can get in touch via calderdale@thelead.uk with any story tips, comments or just to say hello.
Until next time, have a great week!
Andrew