The tie IS THE main issue. Without the tie most pubs in the UK would be able to survice economic downturns and incoming government legislation because they would be profitable enough to take the hits and recover.
Through the tie property companies have completely distorted the entire supply market for beer, whether free or tied, and the valuations of all types of pubs in the UK. The tie is exactly why most pubs in the UK are dilapidated and unkempt.
The tie removes £600,000,000 a year from punters' pockets via tills in the pubs and sends it overseas in interest and bond payments owed by the property companies who have weilded the tie as a secure long term income stream and borrowed against it. That's more than 20K PER PUB being poured into other people's coffers when it could stay here and be spent ON the pubs. This is BEFORE accounting for these property companies' profits, dividends and shareholder payments. The whole pub industry is starved of cash by property companies who largely do not even have brewing interests.
There is NO earthly reason why the tie should stay in place. It is an anachronism and would not even exist in other countries because it is anti competitive, distorts markets and works as a monopoly.
The tie was never meant to last more than ten years after the beer orders, it was SUPPOSED to end in 1998. The property companies lobbied and got it stuck there for what might be perpetuity on the grounds that pubs would CLOSE if the tie were removed. LIARS! They have had another decade to tighten the rapacious grip they have on the neck of the pub industry.
The beer I buy though the tie is more than DOUBLE the price I can get it from local wholesalers.
The rent I pay on my tied pub is THE SAME as comparable free of tie pubs.
Don't tell me it's not the tie that's killing this industry.
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