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CAMRA Lobby Day report | NORFOLK NIPS
Dawn Hopkins, Landlady
of The Kett’s Tavern and
The Rose reports on her
two visits to London:
On Tuesday 5th February, I
attended a Labour Party Round
Table Conference.- I was one of
around 20 publicans, plus
representatives from SIBA
(Julian Grocock & Nigel Sadler),
CAMRA (Mike Benner &
Jonathon Mail), The Publicans
Morning Advertiser (Michelle
Perrett), BII (Phil Dixon), ALMR
and others, who met with Toby
Perkins (Labour MP for Chesterfield)
in The Thatcher Room at
Portcullis House in Westminster
to discuss pubco regulation. The
debate was split into 3 groups
and we were asked to choose
two to join for 30 minutes each
- the debates were 'Alternatives
to the Free Of Tie option', 'Rent
Reviews' and 'How adjudication
should work'. I joined in the
discussion on the FOT option
and adjudication.
Not surprisingly, most tied
lessees wanted to be given the
choice of a Free of Tie option,
to enable them to buy the beer
they want at the market price,
rather than be limited in choice
and paying twice the price of
freeholders. Therefore
24 | SPRING 2013
Norfolk Landlady
makes a stand!
discussing alternatives proved
quite difficult as many lessees
see this as the way forward
(and better for the consumer
and small breweries too!).
The discussion centred around
whether lessees could opt for
part tied (i.e. just on soft drinks
& wine if they wanted to
specialise in ale) and how that
would be workable within the
pubco model.
As for adjudication it would
seem that many lessees feel
that they are ‘fobbed off’ by
the pubco grievance procedures
and that they take too
long, so a time limit was called
for. Most also seemed in
favour of a panel of adjudicators
that are not in the trade
i.e. not working for pubcos or
other companies with vested
interests in the outcome. With
Rent Reviews many were
concerned that they did not
get a fair outcome as the
valuers were ‘recommended’
by the pubcos, so looked at
ways to change this.
There is a real feeling of hope
amongst lessees that something
may actually change to
help them run their pubs the
way they would like to without
being penalised for doing well
and with a choice of what they
want to sell. I was very pleased
to see that these discussions
were conducted with people at
the sharp end of the industry,
and not just their so called
representatives.
As for the BDE lobby in
December, I was astonished
and very pleased at the turnout
and honoured to be invited to
speak at the rally, alongside the
likes of MPs Greg Mulholland,
Andrew Griffiths, Hazel Blears
as well as Colin Valentine from
CAMRA and Duncan Sambrook
of Sambrook Ales.
In my speech, I tried to
convey that it was now a myth
that only bad pubs were
closing and only bad publicans
were losing their livelihoods -
we have lost many great pubs
and publicans (point in case for
Norwich - The Rosary & Ian &
Nina) and without a serious
change this will continue - it's a
hard life and it's getting
harder! I also pointed out that
with every price rise we face -
be it beer duty, rates, utilities -
that we as publicans have to
pass this on to the consumer,
as the alternative is to not be
able to invest in our pubs,
move forward, employ staff or
in some cases even keep them
open. And all of that comes
before having anything for
ourselves of course!
(I must have done alright
because Greg Mulholland shook
my hand and said it was a great
speech afterwards, and he is a
pub hero!)