'New rules' call to protect pubs

Pub companies are "bleeding landlords dry" by ramping up rents and demanding they buy expensive beer, says a leading industry lawyer.

Sarah Ferdinand, a solicitor at Ferdinand Kelly, says the House of Commons probe into the sector needs to come up with tough new rules to protect Britain's publicans.

Five pubs a day are closing down, and analysts predict this will only get worse.

Pub companies such as Punch and Enterprise are largely property companies that sell beer on the side. They take in rent from landlords and force them to buy beer at prices above what they could get elsewhere.

About 24,000 UK pubs are tied to pub companies.

Said Ferdinand: "The value of the pub companies depends on levels of rent that can be secured from licensees, hence the tendency for tenants to be bled dry by increased rents."

Pub companies have been offering support to landlords to keep them in business, but critics say this is not enough.