CAMRA warns against asset stripping in Punch Pubs sale. Time for a new Beer Orders?
CAMRA has reacted to the sale of Punch Pubs to a US Private Equity Investor by, rightly warning against asset stripping. 90% of the pubs are freehold and while thanks to Asset of Community Value legislation, selling them off for housing is not as easy as it once was, it’s a concern
There has been comment that the origins of this latest pubs issue is the 1989-2003 Beer Orders, which CAMRA pushed for. This forced breweries to sell some of the tied estate and allow guest beers. It promoted beer choice and provided a market for smaller brewers.
There is perhaps an unfortunate irony that the current sale involves 53 pubs formerly owned by Youngs that had already given up brewing and moved to being a Pub Company itself.
It also however led to the setting up of Pub Companies, often large ones. The Beer Orders were revoked in 2003 on the basis that there was no longer the dominance of individual business such as breweries in pubs.
Perhaps so but Pub Companies with thousands of pubs and limited beer ranges in many cases are replicating the pre-1989 position. The Punch Pubs sale involves for example 1300 pubs employing 20,000 people. The move from Punch Taverns in 2016 had seen the sale of an even larger number of pubs to Heineken.
It may be time for new Beer Orders, although the precise format would certainly require close consideration.
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