Restrictive Covenants

In the last 6 years over 600 pubs have been sold with restrictive covenants imposed preventing any future owner re-opening the pub. Restrictive covenants have been deliberately used to prevent another company or individual re-opening and attempting to make a success of a closed pub. The Office of Fair Trading have acknowledged the potential anti-competitive nature of these covenants.

The pressure CAMRA has brought to bear has seen the large pub companies suspend use of these covenants but they continue to be used by smaller companies.

CAMRA have campaigned to get the Government to act to ban the use of restrictive covenants to prevent closed pubs from re-opening. The Government are currently consulting on plans to do this.

If, as is often the case, another company or individual want to take on and try to make a success of that pub, it is quite wrong for one company to prevent that, simply to try to get those customers to use another of their pubs up the road.

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