Is the British independent pub dying?: Are chain pubs dominating Britian?

Do British independent pubs need more support?

Transcript

00:00It's not so much that, you know, that these big, the big brewery owned chains are killing

00:10the pub trade. It's a case of quite often that the trade is being eaten from within.

00:16You know, what a lot of the problem is, is that there are 10,000, nearly a third of the

00:20pubs in Britain, are operated under lease from big pubcos. And in a lot of cases, the

00:26threat comes from them, because they're operated, the lease terms are essentially toxic. And

00:33it's difficult to make money, you know, so somebody goes in and okay, they go in with

00:37their eyes wide open, they sign a contract. But then they find that, you know, they're

00:41tied to onerous contracts, and the beer being sold to them that they can't go and buy their

00:46beer anywhere else. So which is one of the reasons why, you know, everybody's paying

00:51six pounds a pint, that sort of thing. It's not brewers, it's the extra cost required

00:56to pay the lease. And because the big pub companies are making a margin on it themselves.

01:02According to recent data, there were more than 10 pub closures across the UK every single

01:07day, as the number of licensed premises in Britain fell by 3.6% in the year to September.

01:13It's reported that the hospitality industry continues to struggle due to staff shortages,

01:18the continuing cost of living crisis, and the aftereffects of COVID and Brexit.

01:24We've announced a six point pledge for pubs, an election pledge for pubs. And this is what

01:29we're asking the government to do is to, is to, you know, first of all, give pubs protection.

01:35They're an essential cornerstone of the community. You know, they serve a huge purpose apart

01:41from just allowing somewhere, you know, for somebody to go for a drink, that, you know,

01:45the social benefits, the community benefits, you know, even even things like, you know,

01:50the vast majority of grassroots music is played in pubs, an entire sector of the market

01:56is under threat.