Landlords wanted to run 15 county pubs

There are 15 brewery or management firm-owned pubs in Worcestershire in need of new tenants. Seven of these are in Worcester.

The sheer number of pubs up for lease is causing concern among local publicans. The pubs include:

• The Crown and Anchor, St John’s
• Five Ways, city centre
• The Lansdowne Inn, Barbourne
• The Goodrest Tavern, Rainbow Hill
• The Bedwardine, St John’s
• The Grosvenor Arms, St John’s
• The Prince of Wales, Warndon

Two of them – the Crown and Anchor and the Five Ways – are closed. The rest are being run by temporary management firms – put in place by the breweries until they find full-time tenants. The consensus from licensees is that while a management company is better than a closed pub, it is not better for the trade.

Linda Griffin, chairman of Worcester Licensed Victuallers Association (LVA), said breweries had admitted that finding new tenants had become increasingly difficult.

Mrs Griffin, landlady of the Swan and Two Nicks in New Street, Worcester, said: “It’s better, particularly with community pubs, when they are kept open by people who really want to do a good job, by people for whom the trade is their livelihood. But it’s better to see a pub run by management company than a closed premises.”

The Crown and Anchor in Hylton Road, St John’s, is owned by Marstons, which has 11 pubs across Worcestershire up for lease.

The pub, which has been shut since mid-February, was once a hugely popular student hang-out.

Guy Beech, landlord of the nearby Wheatsheaf Inn, om Henwick Road, said: “I think it’s down to a combination of bad management and the financial climate. Breweries are often made out to be the big bad wolf and, while they could do a lot more, there’s a much bigger picture.

“Whoever is running the pub has to be so much more proactive these days. If a pub closes it has to start from scratch and that is not easy but it’s less damaging than having it run badly.”

Chris Watts, landlord of the Albion, Bath Road, said: “The landlords are paying maximum money for their rent, then grossly inflated prices on the products they sell. They have to buy everything from the breweries, and so have to pay the top prices. Therefore the publicans themselves are working on a shoestring.”

A spokesman for Scottish and Newcastle brewery, which has three pubs in Worcester up for lease, said: “The problem is finding people to run these premises. But there are hundreds of premises changing hands every day. This is not a dying trade.”

She said the Five Ways Hotel was expected to re-open “shortly”.

Mike Benner, chief executive of the Campaign for Real Ale, said: “More than half of the UK’s pub licensees are prevented from buying beer on the open market at freely negotiated prices. The artificially inflated prices are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, reduced investment and closures.

“Either they voluntarily reform to ensure a fair deal for consumers or they risk punitive intervention from the competition authorities and the Government.”

No one from Marstons was available to comment.