Pub Companies

Fiona O'Donnell Excerpts

Wednesday 9th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Fiona O'Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab)]

May I take the opportunity to wish you a very happy new year, Mr Deputy Speaker?

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Sherwood (Mr Spencer). I am sure that such a benign and jovial fellow is not usually given to conspiracy theories, and he was right to highlight some of the darker practices, such as tenants being deliberately forced out of a lease in order for the pubco to benefit. He was also right to highlight the positive role that good landlords can play in helping people to develop a healthy relationship with alcohol.

I pay tribute to Members on both sides of the House who have stuck doggedly with this agenda, even before many of us arrived in 2010, to get us to this point. In particular, I praise the role of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee. I regret that the Scottish National party Member only popped into this debate for a short time, because there is a lesson for the Scottish Government in how effective genuinely empowered and independent Select Committees can be in promoting good governance. I hope that some SNP Members are watching the screens in their offices and will take that message to heart.

So far, I have been in quite a jovial mood, considering that I am just 60 hours into nicotine withdrawal. The Secretary of State today showed that he has the sensitive underbelly of the Government. He did not seem happy that there was criticism of the time that it has taken to get to this point—like many Members, I stood here almost a year ago asking for effective regulation of this sector—but it really is his own fault. When he was a real Lib Dem—rather like the Campaign for Real Ale—he prided himself on calling for the quick introduction of stronger regulation of the banks. Whereas he would probably give himself a 10 for his foxtrot when it came to the banks, we might score him slightly lower on his gentle waltz towards the effective regulation of this sector. I hope that he has not left the Chamber because he was so sensitive that he was struggling to cope with the criticism.

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas) for talking about the contribution that pubs make to so many of our communities. The Winton Arms is the only pub in the village where I live in East Lothian and it is very important. It is developing in the way that my hon. Friend spoke about. It now has space for a hairdresser, where beauty therapy is also available, and it hosts a coffee shop with home baking. Members can guess which of those two I tend to spend more time on. At new year, when little public transport was available, I was able to go there to see in the new year safely and walk home.

It has been a wasted year. In that time, many of us, including the hon. Member for South East Cornwall (Sheryll Murray), have seen landlords finally give up on a relationship that just was not working. That has happened at the Tyneside Tavern in Haddington in my constituency. The landlord, Neil Forbes, an ex-policeman who ran a superb operation, has finally given up. I have attended meetings with Neil and his wife, and have been copied in to an endless stream of e-mails. The experience reminds me of the cartoon “Tom and Jerry”, in which Tom gets a bump on his head, he pushes it in and one pops out on the other side. Neil would make some progress getting fairer terms in one area, but then Scottish & Newcastle would suddenly introduce a charge in another area and set the situation back. Although I deeply regret that he is walking away from the business, I understand the effect that it was having on him and his family.

The Government were a little late in finally agreeing to make the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill a real Bill with the power to deliver change. I hope that they will not be so reticent this time, but will realise that if we are to have fairness in this sector, we need comprehensive regulation with real teeth.