Lib Dems looking to provide ‘A Better More Sustainable Future for British pubs’. New ‘policy motion’ passed.
This is not particularly a political blog, certainly not ‘party political’, so I’ve linked to the Lib Dems’ website to let you make up your own mind.
However, highlights from what I can gather are:-
Pub Company Reform: Trying to get the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills to change the law to give ‘Tied’ lessees as good a deal as the ‘untied’ ones.
Planning: Make it harder to get planning permission to convert or demolish a pub without offering it for sale at a fair market price first, and in a way that actually gives people a chance to buy it.
Tenant Rights: Give existing tenants the right to buy the freehold themselves at a fair market price if the existing owner decides to sell.
The whole ‘press release’ is linked at the bottom of this post, so have a read and see what you think.
My halfpennyworth, though, is this. Pubs are under threat from organisations who have decided they can make more money by selling them to developers, and who have no reason to consider that damage they are doing to our national heritage. Once a pub is gone, it’s gone forever, and, frankly, no tourist will ever want to visit Britain to look at ‘affordable two or three bedroom accommodation on the site of a former public house’.
And it isn’t just our heritage that’s at stake. The public house, for all its flaws, is a centre of the community, particularly in residential suburbs, towns and villages. It provides a hub and focal point to the area. If you take away the pub, you are left with a vacuum. Nowhere for people to get together, watch the footie or rugby, play darts, meet for a sing song, just plain chat to their neighbours and, yes let’s say it, have a drink!
We need to do everything we can to inject some conscience into society. If the only measure of whether something should be done is short-term profit, the banking industry would still be selling PPI without us knowing! We need to look at the cost and benefits to society of our actions, not just next month’s balance sheet.
We need to protect our pubs for all our sakes. Don’t care if it’s the Lib Dems, Labour, Tory or the Monster Raving Loony Party. If protecting pubs is on their agenda, then we need to encourage them.
pintsbristol 