CAMRA comment on the Pubs Code Adjudicator’s ruling on sediment allowances for cask beer

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Commenting on the arbitration, Tom Stainer, CAMRA Chief Executive said:

“We welcome this arbitration ruling from the Pubs Code Adjudicator. CAMRA has always maintained that supplying cask beer to tenants based on the premise of 72 salable pints per cask is a bad business practice used by pub companies to extract extra profit from their tenants.

“This ruling also recognises the realities and skill involved in keeping cask ale in excellent condition. Pressure on licensees to sell as many pints as possible from a barrel of cask beer can result in a bad quality pint for the consumer.

“Pub companies of all sizes need to ensure that they take notice of this ruling when calculating tied rents from now on. This will go some way to further redressing the imbalance between tied tenants and their pub companies, and also improve the quality of cask ale served across the UK.“

Notes

On 5 December 2019 the Pubs Code Adjudicator published an arbitration decision which found that the wastage allowance for cask beer that Marstons PLC had used when calculating a rent figure for licensee Ed Anderson of the Railway Inn, Cheltenham, was “inappropriate and inadequate”.

The decision notes from the Pubs Code Adjudicator can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/pubs-code-adjudicator-published-non-mro-awards