Your problem Hamish is that you are a rational person and cannot believe the inequity of the system people sign themselves into when they take on a tied lease. The bottom line problem is that pubcos act in sociopathic ways towards tenants which people outside the experience of it cannot possibly get their heads around.

This is no exaggeration and there is no other way to adequately describe this state of affairs.

Pubcos are all effectively in breach of contract from the moment a new lessee signs a lease. Pubcos DO NOT do wht they say they do. They do not offer the support, training, back up and partnership they tell everyone - you and the government and BESC inquiry - what they say on their packaging. THEY DO NOT DO ANY OF THIS. They are in breach of contract in that the 'generous discounts' they heve given over the last ten years or so have remained the same on wholesale list prices which have crept up way beyond RPI and now lessees margins have eroded from being able to get a hard working 55% ten years ago to an impossible to live on 40% + GP now. And, eventually when lessees are in a desperate financial situation, they buy out to save their lives, their business and their family's future. Stealing? Or fighting their corner against impossible odds.