Dear Tom and Nik,

We hope you are both well in these challenging times. We are writing to you to let you know about the launch of the new Campaign for Pubs. An experienced group of publicans, pub campaigners, pub suppliers and pub enthusiasts have come together to form the Campaign for Pubs, a new grassroots campaign group to fight for a better, freer and fairer and more sustainable future for pubs. As you may have noticed, we launched the Campaign for Pubs last Friday (11th June) and were fortunate enough to get a fair bit of media coverage over the weekend. So I thought you might appreciate knowing a little bit about us, as we clearly share some very important common campaigning objectives.

The Campaign for Pubs has been formed alongside the British Pub Confederation, which as you know was established in 2015, to give those representing pubs and publicans a stronger and more united voice, following the success of the Fair Deal for Your Local campaign. The Confederation is a confederation of organisations, not a membership campaign group, so the decision was taken to form a new constituted membership body, partly due to the acute need for urgent action to support and advocate directly for pubs during the Covid-19 crisis. From mid-March, when pubs closed, the Confederation has had many enquiries from licensees and pub campaigners wishing to join, but as a Confederation that was not possible, so we have established the Campaign for Pubs as new dedicated membership group, allowing everyone who shares our vision to get involved in our campaigning and our work.