Dear Kwasi,

Discrimination against tenants who have exercised their legal right to the Market Rent Only option

We are writing from the Campaign for Pubs to raise an extremely serious matter which is threatening the future of some pubs and pushing some publicans towards bankruptcy. We refer to the scandalous matter of publicans being singled out and charged full rent by their pub-owning company, simply for having exercised their legal rights under the Pubs Code.

This is clearly profoundly discriminatory, and also somewhat sinister, as it is a clear attempt to circumvent the intent of legislation and the will of Parliament. The tenants involved have often reported a feeling that, despite being good-quality tenants in every sense, they are now being “punished” by their pub-owning companies for exercising their legal rights under the Pubs Code, but even worse than that, many report a strong believe that they are being subjected to an opportunistic attempt to force them out of their pubs so that their pub-owning company can regain the sites for their own use…