16/04/2009 - Publicans crippled by high rents
Thousands of pubs have changed hands in recent years with debt leading to repossession in many cases, data show.
A study of 8,400 pubs run by Punch Taverns found 2,600 had changed hands in the past three years. The GMB union said the moves were mainly down to leases coming to an end, tenants giving notice, business failures or repossessions.
It put the business failures in the sector down to "unrealistic" rents and the high price of beer - where publicans are being overcharged by up to 80p a pint.
Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, said: "A lot of tied pubs no longer have regular tenants. This GMB analysis shows at least a 32% 'churn' in the Punch estate.
"This high level of churn is not unique to Punch and will be replicated in other pubco estates. The churn shows that the number of closures in the big pubcos are the very thin end of the uneconomic wedge in this sector and that the level of business failures is high because of unrealistic rents and wholesale beer prices charged by pubcos."
Copyright © Press Association 2009
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