NICK WELCOMES APPOINTMENT OF PUBS MINISTER

2.49.49pm GMT Mon 1st Mar 2010

Following the appointment of the UK's first pubs minister, Nick and fellow Parliamentarians are calling on the Government to devise an affective strategy to arrest the alarming rate of pub closures.

Early Day Motion 869 notes: 'That this House welcomes the appointment of the right hon. Member for Wentworth as the UK's first pubs minister; notes that 39 pubs are closing across the UK each week; commends the fact that the right hon. Member has been given the job of coming up with a strategy to help save Britain's pubs; hopes that in the last few weeks before the general election, the Government can produce a manifesto to support and preserve the pub, which must include all the main issues and problems currently facing pubs; further notes the main areas of focus include reform of planning law to protect the pub, outlawing the practice of restrictive covenants, reductions in beer duty, measures to deal with unacceptably low supermarket beer pricing, reform of the current model of `the tie' as operated by some pub companies' covenants, and other relevant measures; and calls on the Government to focus on these issues and to bring real change to the industry.'