Don't blame your local pub

Letters have appeared about the price difference of beer at pubs and off licences. The pubs deserve a defence.

The dominant factor in the high pub price of beer is the greed of the huge pub-owning companies.

Tenants pay extortionate rents. Beer has to be purchased from the limited portfolio of the pub company, with a typical surcharge of £40 on a nine-gallon cask compared to wholesale prices (such portfolios often mean that a local micro brewer cannot sell his beer in his own area).

A tenant caught obtaining beer from a source other than a pub company can be subject to a heavy fine or to a dismissal.

Should a tenant increase his trade against the odds, then the pub company increases his rent. It is surely the only industry where success is penalised.

In almost every other industry tenants rent premises and are then free to conduct their own business.

It is grossly wrong that the huge pub companies not only draw substantial rents but then interfere, control, penalise and attempt to suck the tenant dry at every opportunity.

By its nature cask beer (real ale) can only be served in a pub or club, premises where conduct and consumption are controlled - ideal venues for young people to experience responsible drinking.

Anyone who walks the urban streets knows that cask beer does not cause alcohol abuse - it is caused by heavily discounted lager, cider and vodka from the off licence.

The 4p increase by the government on beer has done precisely nothing to stem the problem. It is an insane decision.

It penalises a drink which has the reputation of being enjoyed responsibly while doing nothing to address the real cause, the cheap off licence supply of alcohol.

To help the beleaguered British pub Camra is campaigning for the repeal of the 4p increase, also for pub companies with more than 500 pubs to allow tenants the right to obtain a cask beer of their own choice and at their own price.

K Watkins, Walsall