Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Thursday 20th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

We warmly welcome challenger banks offering a service to small business. If they can be organised on a local and regional basis, so much the better. There is an organisation called Cambridge and Counties, which is performing this role in the east of England, and I know that Airdrie bank does so in Scotland. We would like to see many more. The liberalised process of licensing means that these things can come on stream rapidly when they are put forward.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

Regrettably but inevitably, the pubcos trade association, the British Beer and Pub Association, is providing misleading information to the media and MPs about the London Economics report commissioned by BIS, including presenting figures for an immediate free-of-tie option for all tenants, which clause 2 is clearly not; it is gradual. The association’s presentation is therefore false. What assurances can I get from Ministers that they are aware of this, will scrutinise it and will ensure that civil servants also know that these misleading claims are just that?

[Vince Cable]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on the long and successful campaign that he has fought on this subject. I am inclined to let the matter rest, rather than continue a debate that he has won.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Thursday 10th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I am certainly very happy to give the hon. Lady an assurance to meet her in the House and to visit her constituency. I have been to Tyneside on several occasions and I am aware that it is a centre for advanced manufacturing. In many respects it is doing very well on the back of the growth of the oil and gas industry in the North sea. We clearly need more jobs on Tyneside and I am happy to work with her to deliver them.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

T5. Twenty-five years ago the then Government intervened in the pubs market, recognising that it was failing consumers and small brewers. However, as a result of industry lobbying, they failed to place a limit on the number of pubs, which led to the development of the large pubcos. Twenty-five years on, will the Secretary of State assure me that he will listen to the majority of MPs in the House of Commons rather than giving in to industry lobbying, and that he will introduce the market-rent-only option which is the solution offered by the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Thursday 6th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I confess that I have not yet absorbed the significance of that statement. We will certainly consider it.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

The House is awaiting the response to the BIS consultation on pub companies, but now that the London Economics research has been exposed as fundamentally flawed and does not follow the brief given to it by BIS, and the firm has charged £26,000 for fieldwork that did not take place, will my right hon. Friend ignore this bunkum and listen to the Federation of Small Businesses’ research, which shows that the market rent-only option would benefit the UK economy by £78 million?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Thursday 13th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

It is an objective of our regulation to achieve a fair distribution of risk and reward. As I have said, the precise mechanism and whether we proceed with the adjudicator in the way that we have suggested very much depend on how we analyse the consultation. The results will of course be discussed in the House.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

Yesterday’s news about Punch Taverns’ unsustainable debt and its row with the committee set up by the Association of British Insurers shows that the securitised pubco scam is a disaster not just for local pubs but for the British economy. Will the Secretary of State listen to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Forum of Private Business, all of which back Fair Deal For Your Local and the obvious solution, which is the market rent-only option?

Pub Companies

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Wednesday 9th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Yes, that is an extremely good, balanced statement of the factors we have to take into account here. The hon. Lady is right that we propose to deal with the larger pub companies—those with more than 500 pubs. We will be consulting on that, but that is the approach we intend to adopt.

[Greg Mulholland]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend warmly on this wonderful announcement for Britain’s pubs. I urge him to emphasise, however, that there are many small pub companies doing well, taking on pubs, employing people and expanding, which shows that the problem is not with the pubs or companies, but with the giant lease pub companies that have abused both the model and their position.

[Vince Cable]

Yes, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. I shall say more about this later, but the microbreweries and innovative breweries are a major growth industry, expanding well and offering a more varied service. They are a great success story and we do not want to do anything with this new approach that will undermine them.

--- Later in debate ---

[Vince Cable]

My colleague is absolutely right to say that this is about power relationships and how we can prevent them from spilling over into abuse. As I have said, I have an open mind about the precise legal mechanisms that we shall use.

[Greg Mulholland]

Will my right hon. Friend look again at the Save the Pub document, which shows that the figures on pub closures are extremely misleading? He must recognise that they were paid for by the pubcos’ association, the British Beer and Pub Association. Many pubs have been reclassified on closure as being free of tie, having in some cases never operated as such. The figures clearly show that there are more free-of-tie pubs now than there were, and that tied business failure is huge—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. We must have brief interventions. Time is ticking on.

Directors’ Pay

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Wednesday 20th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

There is already a set of rules under the stewardship code. If companies fail to observe the binding vote, they will be making unauthorised payments. Very considerable liabilities can accrue to directors of companies that do that.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

I welcome the statement, and the Secretary of State is right to tackle rewards for failure. Surely the worst example is that of Enterprise Inns, which suffered a 96.6% decline in share values over five years. Over three years when share values declined by 80%, Ted Tuppen, the chief executive, thought it fit to reward himself with £850,000 in performance-related bonuses. Does my right hon. Friend agree that shareholders are only part of the answer? Thousands of businesses are being damaged by the pubco model, so will he pledge to uphold the will of Parliament and announce a review in the autumn? As everyone in the industry knows, the imbalance in that sector has not been changed by the so-called self-regulatory solution.

[Vince Cable]

The Minister who formerly had responsibility for pubs, who is now Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, had extensive debates with my hon. Friend on Enterprise Inns and the damage that the pubco model has done. The figures my hon. Friend produces are striking. I cannot understand why shareholders are not more active if there has been such a divergence between pay and performance. Perhaps he, with his formidable campaigning skills, will help them to be so.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Thursday 2nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, because I have visited his constituency and discussed these issues with him, the steel industry is going through an extremely difficult time not just in the UK, and steel makers have made losses. We are helping them through energy-intensive support, and there are other forms of help such as the regional growth fund and enterprise zones. We are doing what we can to help steel areas that are affected by the current contraction.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

The one seemingly hopeful part of the Government’s otherwise dreadful response on pub companies was the unfortunately named PICAS—the pub independent conciliation and arbitration service. However, hope soon faded when it was revealed that it was to be pubco-funded, and this week it has been announced that it will be chaired by a Punch Taverns surveyor. Does the Minister think that licensees will want to use that supposedly independent body?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Thursday 27th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

That certainly is not the case, but the hon. Gentleman has a perfectly valid point in relation to bank lending. That is absolutely the case, and, as a result of the agreement that we have reached with the banks, they have—certainly in the first two quarters—achieved the gross lending objectives that we set them, but there is a lot more to do. Surveys show that a shortage of credit is a serious problem, and we have to continue to work with the banks and, where necessary, to require them to make credit available to the economy.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

Since December 2008, 3,218 tied pubs have closed and 425 free houses have opened, yet the British Beer and Pub Association, which speaks for pub companies, continues to mislead Ministers and MPs by stating that the opposite is actually the case. Do Ministers agree that this discredits the BBPA and also shows that the Government must stick to their commitment to act on the issue?

Higher Education and Student Finance

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Tuesday 12th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

The Opposition do themselves no favours simply drawing attention to the fact that they themselves are hopelessly divided on the issue and have no answer to the issue of how higher education would be funded.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

Yesterday, the Prime Minister said that coalition politics involved compromise, and he was absolutely right. However, will the Secretary of State accept that there has been compromise by many people who now accept that in the current economic climate it is no longer possible to abolish tuition fees at their current rate? Does he also accept that increasing fees to more than twice the level that they are at is a compromise that some people simply cannot and will not accept?

[Vince Cable]

I know that the hon. Gentleman has strong feelings on the subject and we have debated it. The first part of his question posed the problem correctly. The idea of abolishing tuition fees or even freezing them at their present level is simply not feasible, and I think that he acknowledges that. We must work towards a level; I specified £7,000 on behalf of the Government, which we think is the only way in future in which universities can be properly funded to carry out the functions that he and all of us want to see them perform at world-class level.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Greg Mulholland

Thursday 3rd June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

This Government are very fixed on the issue of rebalancing the economy. Manufacturing has declined continually over the past few decades, particularly in the past decade. It now has the advantage of a more competitive exchange rate, and it will be given support from the Government, particularly through the development of apprenticeships, as I indicated earlier.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

After vigorous lobbying, including by the all-party “Save the pub” group, the last Government confirmed plans to relax the beer tie and to set a timetable to act if the industry did not reform itself. Can we get an assurance from the Minister that this Government will stick to that plan and timetable?