TIM MARTIN ON PUBCO MODEL

That this House agrees with the recent comments by Tim Martin, chairman of the successfully managed pub company JD Wetherspoon, that large leased pub companies disregard the plight of their tenants; also agrees with Mr Martin that the founders of Punch Taverns, Hugh Osmond, and Enterprise Inns, Ted Tuppen "bought the large tenanted pub estates of the major brewers, using borrowed money, and then hiked up the rents and the beer prices paid by tenants"; endorses his assessment that this unsustainable economic model has led to thousands of pubs having to close; and calls on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to intervene urgently in order to protect the great British pub.