Tribune – news, features and comment from Britain's left-wing magazine

by René Lavanchy

The GMB union threw down a challenge this week to pub-owning companies to give a “fair deal” to their leased pubs, as it wrote to 37,000 landlords offering them the chance of industrial action against the firms.

The union says that the “pubcos” – which lease nearly 30,000 pubs to landlords and oblige them to buy their beer at a premium rate – are overcharging lessees by over £12,000 and forcing many landlords to give up or go bust.

And one landlord, threatened with eviction for buying from a third party, told Tribune one of Britain’s biggest pubcos was a “parasite” that did nothing for landlords.

If the GMB obtains a vote for action, pub landlords will stop measuring the amount of beer they sell – and may also start buying beer from outside firms. The move threatens to smash the “beer tie” model of pub management, which governs 69 per cent of British pubs. The union hopes to have a result before Christmas.

Paul Maloney, GMB national officer, said: “Publicans are sick to the teeth of money being extorted from them. What the publicans of the country are saying loud and clear to GMB is: we won’t have any more of this.

“It’s a pity the politicians don’t have the teeth to deal with this. It’s affecting the smallest businesses; it’s affecting communities.” He added that the strike action was sure to gain public support, as beer prices would fall by up to 30 per cent.

Based on figures in an Office of Fair Trading report, the union says that running a tied pub costs £12,000 more than a free house, and that the figure is probably more in reality. The OFT quotes a different figure of up to £4,500.

The GMB have intervened to support a publican threatened with eviction by pubco giant Punch Taverns after buying beer outside the tie. Brian Forgie of The Globe in Letchworth said: “They take everything they can get and don’t do very much. Parasite, I call them.” He estimated that being tied to a pubco cost him an extra £20,000 a year overall.

Punch Taverns declined to comment.