Stonegate - Redacted Award - November 2023 - 1
Pubs Code Adjudicator · Pubs Code (PCA) · England and Wales · November 2023
Why it matters
A Pubs Code arbitration (Stonegate, November 2023) on the pub company's duty to carry out a proper rent assessment, since the rent is what the tie ultimately costs the tenant.
Summary
A Pubs Code arbitration involving Stonegate, one of the large pub companies bound by the Code, and one of its tied tenants. The dispute touched several duties at once: the pub company's duty to carry out a proper rent assessment, since the rent is what the tie ultimately costs the tenant; the conduct of Business Development Managers, the pub company staff who deal with tenants face to face; and the sustainable business plan a tenant must be able to expect, the test of whether a tied pub can realistically be run at a profit. For a student, it is a concrete worked example of how the Pubs Code is enforced against a named operator: the Code gives tied tenants in England and Wales a set of statutory protections against the brewery or pub company that owns their pub, and the Adjudicator resolves disputes about them by binding arbitration. The Adjudicator publishes the award (redacted where needed) so the industry can see how the Code is applied.
The detail
Parties: Stonegate (pub-owning business) and a tied tenant
Outcome: See the published award for the Adjudicator's findings.
Applicable law: Pubs Code etc. Regulations 2016; Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015
Issues in play: Pubs Code
Read the full decision at Pubs Code Adjudicator ↗
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