Jason visited the Black Horse in Lindley to follow up his recent public house consultation. Jason asked every pub landlord in the Colne Valley, Holme Valley and Lindley to complete a short survey to give him a better idea on the current issues and concerns facing our local pubs.
The results show that pub companies own 70% of the pubs that replied to the consultation. Enterprise Inns own 40% of the pubs owned by pub companies. Just over two thirds of the pubs that replied to the consultation have noticed a fall in profits compared to a similar period last year, with the average drop in profits being 21.29%.
The pubs that noticed a fall in profits believed that the main causes were customers not frequenting bars as often, pub companies increasing prices disproportionately to cost and supermarket cheap alcohol sales. As a result of this 80% of the pubs that replied to the consultation believed that there should be a minimum retail price for alcohol, for example 50p per unit of alcohol.
The information that Jason received will help him to campaign for our local pubs, as he recognises the importance in our communities and the jobs they support.
Jason is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Beer & Pubs and has signed up to the “Fair Deal for your Local” campaign. Jason encourages all local pub goers to “Speak up and demand a fair deal for your local pub and stop the exploitation of licensees by the large pub companies”.
In April 2013 the Department for Business Innovation and Skills announced a consultation on a statutory code of practice for large pub companies. Jason has urged the pubs in the constituency to take part in the consultation which can be found here.
