Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said a report by the the pubs code adjudicator was one-sidedThe government’s pub watchdog has prompted a row with the industry after claiming that landlords were circumventing the law brought in to protect pubs that are obliged to buy drinks from their landlord. Paul Newby, the pubs code adjudicator, said tenants had complained “almost without exception” that pub-owning companies did not act within the spirit of the code and were using technicalities to block tenants moving to a “market rent only” relationship where supplies are bought freely. The comments, branded one-sided and anecdotal by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), came after a fact-finding mission on tenants’ experience of the market rent only (MRO) option. “I commissioned the verification exercise because I have had concerns brought to me and I wanted the detailed evidence…

Source: The Times August 23, 2017 23:03 UTC