I was intrigued to read your correspondent’s report regarding the recent vote by Parliment to break the “beer tie” on November 22.

While this bill still has to traverse the House of Lords to become law it’s a victory for publicans and most of all the man in the street who supports them.

However, we should not celebrate too early. It is not the first time that the government has intervened.

The famous “Beer Orders” in 1989 limited fat cat brewers to owning 2,000 pubs each.

Today’s letters

Unfortunately this brought about the rise of the pub company, the likes of Enterprise and Punch who between them own 8,000 pubs, that were immune to the brewery legislation as they do not produce their own beer.

Swallowing up chain after chain of brewery pubs, the Pubcos just introduced a layer of management between the brewer and the publican which naturally produced a layer of cost, and guess who had to pay for it? Jobs will be lost at the Pubcos but will reappear in other areas such as the retail and wholesale markets, and for once the price of a pint will fall at the tied pubs breathing fresh air into more than 30,000 wet trade outlets across the country.

Nick Duval, Banbury Road, Kidlington

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