Pubs to fight competition probe
Pub companies are to fight a rearguard action to prevent a potentially damaging probe into competition issues at the heart of the industry. A cross-party committee of MPs last week called on the Competition Commission to look into the arrangement by which pub tenants buy beer directly from landlords. But Enterprise Inns is now leading a movement to put together a group to represent the concerns of licensees, while other pub companies are looking at ways to prevent tenants being forced to buy alcohol from landlords.