Forum of Private Business welcomes changes to waste requirements for Pub Companies
The Forum of Private Business has welcomed yesterday’s updated waste management advice for pub tenants, but has expressed disappointment at how long it has taken.
Dave Mountford, the Forum’s lead on their Protect Your Pub campaign, said: “It is welcoming that Pubs will now be required to split out both sediment waste and operational waste and this decision will go some way to stopping the systematic manipulation of waste which has contributed to the artificial inflation of rents over the last 25 years.
“It is disappointing that these changes have only been made six years after the Government was first made aware of the issue though, and that is has taken the Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA) nearly 3 years to act.”
Dave and fellow campaigners believe that this failure to act by the PCA demonstrates yet again that the Pubs Code, and the Adjudicator’s office, has no teeth.
Dave added: “This consultation has proved that the legislation could be routinely ignored. Until the PCA starts to address the deliberate code avoidance by fining the Pub Owning Businesses (PoBs) for their behaviour it is difficult to envisage that they will change their behaviour in any meaningful way.”
Commenting, a representative of The Punch Tenant Network (PTN) said: “In issuing this guidance, the PCA is not creating new regulations but is making clear how the PoBs he regulates must comply with the regulations that already exist, and have existed for many years.
“This guidance recognises that non-compliance has been endemic in the industry, including PoBs regulated by him and those that are not.”
ENDS
You can view yesterday’s guidance note here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pubs-code-adjudicator-publishes-guidance-on-beer-waste-and-duty