Pub Closure Figures

EDM number 924 in 2013-14, proposed by Greg Mulholland on 08/01/2014.
Categorised under the topics of Companies, Leisure and Service industries.

That this House expresses concern at the misinformation supplied to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, hon and right hon. Members and the media by large pub companies and their lobbyists the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) regarding pub closures; notes the report by the All-Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, working with CGA Strategy, which exposes that false statements have been made; further notes that CGA figures show that between December 2005 and March 2013, 5,117 non-managed pubs closed compared with only 2,131 free trade pubs; further notes that BBPA's own figures show that over 10 years non-managed pubs decreased by over 8,000 whilst the free trade sector actually expanded by 1,600; condemns the myth that has been peddled suggesting that more free of tie pubs have closed than tied pubs; further notes that this has now been debunked and should not be repeated; further notes that the figures clearly show that tenanted and leased pubs have closed in greater number than free trade pubs, without even counting the thousands of temporary closures of pubco pubs each year; further notes the damning disposal figures with Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns collectively disposing of over 5,000 pubs between 2008 and 2012, a third of all their pubs in just four years; expresses concern that false information has been taken at face value by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, HM Treasury and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) leading to inappropriate assessments; calls for an investigation into this; and further calls on the Government and the OFT to accept the real picture of pub closures and to act accordingly.

This motion has been signed by a total of 27 MPs.