LONDON ECONOMICS PUBS REPORT

That this House is concerned about the December 2013 London Economics (LE) report, entitled 'Modelling the impact of proposed policies on pubs and the pub sector', commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS); notes the report was not based on independent research but confidential data supplied by pub companies lobbying against any Government action; further notes LE suspiciously failed to speak to pubco tenants or any organisations supporting the Fair Deal for Your Local campaign; is appalled LE has charged the taxpayer £26,000 for fieldwork when none was undertaken; further notes the report has not adhered to the brief and not done any work to assess pub viability as a result of reform, having instead tested viability of hugely indebted pubcos; further notes LE effectively admits this, saying it merely reports on what they would expect pub companies to do, given previous experience and the financial situation they find themselves in; further notes the report misunderstands the pubco economic model, contains factual errors, misreports industry evidence and makes incorrect conclusions; concludes the report is a waste of £39,100 of taxpayers' money; welcomes the parliamentary Save the Pub group's report exposing flaws in LE's report; further notes robust research by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) that the BIS Select Committee's market rent-only option would make thousands of pubs more viable, and projects that introduce this option would benefit the UK economy by £78 million; and demands that BIS disregards the LE report and uses the FSB research as evidence for making a decision.