Tenants could cut utility costs

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/ViewArticle?R=83963

The posts altogether above pretty much cover the depth of the problems associated with the tied pub trade.

1) Uptake on a scheme like this needs three year's of determined application to get a high take up. Tenants are already likely to be in a long term contract with severe penalties for coming out early which makes it impossible to shift to another deal, no matter how attractive.

2) Deep scepticism. Tenant's have learned to have a default position of deep distrust of anything 'offered freely' by their landlord because, as my Regional Director told me very clearly it's always a one way street: 'I like to think we are fair but believe if we give a tenant something, the tenant should always give us something back in return'. Tenant's are so used to being abused financially by their landlord, if the pubco is involved in part of any deal with a lessee, tenants will assume they are about to have their shirt ripped off their back again, even if they can't see, no matter how hard they look, the downside.

3) The most important thing about this sort of initiative, from the pubcos' point of view, like their wholesale pricelists for cask ales that hardly anyone takes up because there's so little margin for them, is just window dressing for people looking at the Trade from outside... such as BEC, OFT Europe etc; it serves to suggest two things: a) the pubco's looking out for its tenants because it has a scheme in place (they won't ever have to show they put a lot of energy into telling tenants about it) which appears beneficial to their lessees. b) They use the evidence of low uptake to suggest that their lessees are indolent, lazy, stupid idiots who don't care about their business and who are wholly responsible for the pubco's poor performance when their pubs are shutting down like dead flies in a Damien Hurst exhibit.

Proof of 3) is in Russell Burton's tone which is exactly redolent of Enterprise's general stinky, patronising and condescending attitude toward its tenants.