importance of pubs

The Public Houses and the chapels were the backbone of Welsh communities until the 1980s.

Since then we have seen the large scale closure of both.

In Morriston, where I live, in the last 5 years 6 pubs and 2 clubs have closed.

For TV fans programmes such as Coronation Street with the rovers return and Eastenders with the Queen Vic still use the pub as the focus for the commmunity

What we have seen in recent years is two different things happening

Firstly we have seen the growth of large pub chains and secondly we have seen the sale of cheap alcohol in supermarkets and other shops.

There have been two types of pub chain  the large pub companies who rent out pubs to licensees and the large managed pubs often in city centre locations where the serving of food is often more important than the serving of drink.

I am surprised the Conservatives have raised this as a debate today because the cause of the problem goes back to the time when we had the last majority Tory government.

For decades breweries had owned pubs and it was in their interest to sell their beer through their pubs.

Then one of the Friedman free market disciples decided that was bad for competition.

So the large breweries had to decide to be either brewers or pub owners. They all decided to remain brewers and the pubs were sold off to pub companies such as Punch Taverns, the 'pubco' that owns about one in eight British pubs and Enterprise Inns.

The breweries no longer had an economic reason to sell most of their beer through pubs.

In terms of distribution it became much easier to sell cans through supermarkets than barrels via pubs.

To quote CAMRA

“Around a third of pubs in the UK are owned by Pub Companies – large property companies who lease pubs out to tenants to run as their own business. These pubs are contractually obliged to buy their beer only from the Pubco; preventing pub licensees buying on the open market. This is known as the beer tie.

Why is this the case? The Pubco model.

Pubcos make huge excess profits by using the beer tie to force licensees and ultimately the consumer to pay high prices. Licensees can pay up to 50% more for beer than a free-of-tie publican. Alongside this pubco licensees often find themselves paying above market value rents and have no independent adjudicator to settle disputes.”

So publicans ended up tied to a supplier and paying more than some supermarkets and cash and carriers are selling drinks for but without the large breweries having any incentive to sell via them as opposed to supermarkets.

I am a regular visitor to pubs and clubs and first met my wife and my two best friends in Morriston pubs.

So what are the solutions

Camra calls for

a rebalance to the current unfair relationship between the giant property companies (pubcos) and their licensees. This rebalance must include an option for lessees to become free of tie, accompanied by an open market rent review, so that they can buy beer on the open market. This could potentially save each pub business tens of thousands of pounds every year.

Those who choose to remain tied should be given the opportunity to buy one real ale as a guest beer outside of any beer tie.

CAMRA is also calling for an independent adjudicator to be established which would have the power to carry out investigations and impose financial penalties; protecting thousands of licensees struggling to make a fair and sustainable living.

The "beer tie" is not in itself harmful and has been used for over a century by brewers to guarantee a market for the beer that they brew and works well for the small brewers who still own pubs.

Also we need a minimum alcohol price in order to deal with the huge price discrepancy between pubs and supermarkets and other shops selling alcohol.

Pubs are part of our heritage, provide opportunities to meet new people in a convivial and neutral setting.

Wales would be a lot poorer without them.