Liberal Democrat MP Westmorland and Lonsdale Tim Farron has joined a nationwide campaign to protect traditional local pubs and publicans from unfair trading conditions imposed by large pub companies, and is calling on local people to sign up on behalf of their own regular watering hole.

Many licensees currently face a situation where the large pub-owning companies take an unfairly large proportion of pub profits, in some cases forcing licence holders to live on earnings below the minimum wage. This scenario has led to widespread closures as publicans themselves are forced to throw in the towel due to paltry earnings.

The campaign aims to ensure the Government’s proposed statutory code of practice for pub companies contains an option for tied publicans to only pay a fair, independently assessed market rent to the company which owns their pub.

Tim has lent his support to their argument that such a reform would deliver a fair business relationship between large pub companies and their licensee, while freeing up small businesses to innovate, invest and thrive to secure a sustainable future for thousands of Britain’s pubs.

Commenting, Tim Farron said

“The archetypal ‘local’ is a distinct and instantly recognisable part of towns and villages across the South Lakes, and indeed part of the very fabric of British life.

“Our local pubs help to bind the community together, places where everyone can come to enjoy a friendly atmosphere and a uniquely warm, Cumbrian welcome. To see them threatened by a business model which does not care for any of these things, but simply seeks to suck as much profit from them before they cease to exist, is completely unacceptable and I am pleased to take action against this.

“The Government must take swift action to ensure large companies cannot treat pubs in this way any longer, and provide a crucial lifeline to licensees who are struggling to make ends meet as a result.

“I am calling on local people to join me and sign up to protect their local, at http://www.fairdealforyourlocal.com/“