Beer and the tie

The FT takes a gloomy view of the Government announcement yesterday that it doesn't intend to change the tie, the arrangement by which pub tenants are restricted to buying beer from the owners of the freehold. CAMRA is also against the tie.

There are two issues here, pub companies that own freeholds but don't brew beer and breweries that have an estate of tied estates.  It is the former that cause problems for tenants by hiking beer prices and rent but the latter who would suffer most from the abolition of the tie.

CAMRA should be careful what they wish for: the existence of pub companies is largely the result of the Beer Orders of twenty years ago that forced breweries to offload large parts of their tied estates.