The boss of David Cameron’s favourite brewer yesterday accused the Government of creating “an increasingly anti-business environment” and warned that it was putting thousands of pubs at risk of closure.
Jonathan Paveley, chairman of Oxfordshire’s Hook Norton Brewery, said that proposals to regulate the way the big tenanted pub companies, such as Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns, treat their tenants would have “dramatic unintended consequences”.
Mr Paveley, who is also executive chairman of Admiral Taverns, one of the pubcos targeted by the legislation, said: “The issues being scrutinised are complex and government understanding of the consequences of its plans appears lacking.”
The proposals, on which the consultation ended yesterday, were announced in January by Vince Cable after he decided that, despite warnings to “change their