Pub Companies

Jeremy Corbyn Excerpts

Wednesday 9th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I am not going to guess, but it is a rather small number.

[Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab)]

Basically, the problem in London—certainly inner London—is property values. Many pubs close because pub companies and others make a great deal of money out of selling them and moving on into residential accommodation. My borough council is trying to introduce a planning policy that does not allow an automatic change of use. Is there anything the Secretary of State can do to preserve what are very important community assets from property speculation, beyond what is already happening to the pub industry through this lack of regulation?

[Vince Cable]

As I understand it, there is in any event a specialist use class under the planning regime, which, as it currently stands, provides a degree of protection. We have a programme, which one of my ministerial colleagues introduced a month ago, for supporting community pubs; I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman’s local council and community are taking advantage of that.

--- Later in debate ---

[Paul Murphy (Torfaen) (Lab)]

I am delighted to be able to take part in this debate, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Leeds North West (Greg Mulholland) on playing a hugely significant role in ensuring that the whole policy of the Government has changed on this issue. My hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas) made the very good point that this is a good day for the House of Commons. All-party groups have had some poor publicity in the past few weeks, but groups such as the one chaired by the hon. Gentleman provide an excellent example of how parliamentarians from both Houses and from right across the political spectrum can come together to change the law on such issues. The Select Committee, and my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich West (Mr Bailey) and the hon. Member for Mid Worcestershire (Peter Luff), played an enormously important role in 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010 and last year, so that is important, too.

We must not forget that this is an Opposition day debate, and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield (Toby Perkins), who opened the debate with great skill and wit. He, too, has played a very important role in making sure that the decision has been changed—over the past couple of hours, not just the past couple of days.

The biggest tribute must go to the landlords, who have approached us, their Members of Parliament. They have suffered under the scandal of the tie not only for years but for decades. In my constituency, Mr Phil Jones of the Open Hearth public house in Pontypool contacted me on the issue three years ago. I was not aware of all the detail, but he explained that we are dealing not with the tie of old—it is not the tie of a brewery such as Brains, the family brewery in south Wales—but with a much bigger issue and a much greater scandal.

It is so important that MPs across the board have dealt with the issue, because the landlords who have come to us have shown great courage in putting their case. Today is a vindication of the work they have done as much as it is of that done by anybody else.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

The way my right hon. Friend describes local pubs in his constituency is excellent. In my constituency, we have The Alma pub in Newington Green, an excellent gastropub that makes no money at all because of the pub companies’ voracious appetite for money. Will it be possible to deal with the outstanding cases that the voluntary regulation system has failed under the statutory system?

[Paul Murphy]

One would hope so; I want to conclude on the question of how the consultation process will work.

If we are dealing with a statutory code of practice, which we must be, as the voluntary one has clearly failed, its only significance lies in what is in it. It might be statutory, but if it does not cover the right things, it will be unimportant and meaningless. It must deal with the free-of-tie option and the adjudicator—and, of course, it must address the issues of scandalously high rents and beer that is too expensive. It must deal with that combination.

How will the consultation process develop? The disappointing aspect of what the Government have done in the past—not of what they are doing or will do—is that they have effectively consulted only with the pubcos and have written out various documents that were effectively provided to them by the great pubcos. Clearly, that could not go on and the bilateral association between pubcos and the Government just was not right and proper. Now, the consultation must go much further. It must include the GMB, Unite, the Fair Pint campaign, CAMRA and, of course, the Federation of Small Businesses and others. It must not be simply a formal, paper consultation, either. It must be a proper consultation in which Ministers—not civil servants—sit down with all the organisations and take into account what they say and come up with something that will satisfy the points that Members across the House have put to the Minister today.

I think everybody agrees that only a statutory code of practice will work. If it contains the sort of things that Members want and if the consultation is proper and valid, that will be good for pubs, good for our communities and good for our country.