The chairwoman of the parliamentary committee investigating the code that regulates the relationship between pub owners and tenants has accused businesses of “gaming the system” and bullying tenants into accepting poor terms.
Rachel Reeves has written to Richard Harrington, the business minister, to demand urgent action to ensure that pub tenants are granted “the rights and protection promised to them by the pubs code”.
The Labour MP who chairs the business, energy and industrial strategy committee wrote: “The pubs code was supposed to give tenants more rights and greater protection when dealing with the large pub companies that own tied pubs. Two years on, the reality is that neither tenants or pubs companies are satisfied that it is working.”
