English Tied-House Rules Loosened

Fascinating:

Nik Antona, the Burton-based national director of the Campaign For Real Ale, said the Government’s ‘12-point plan’ to help the pub industry would help stem the flow of an alarming trend which sees 40 pubs close across the UK each week.

The measures, announced by pubs minister John Healey, include plans to pump cash into allowing communities to buy out struggling pubs.

Meanwhile, councils will be given new powers enabling them to intervene before pubs are demolished while pub companies will be stopped from imposing ‘restrictive covenants’ when they sell off premises, preventing competitors from continuing to run them as pubs.

Alcohol laws are very often byzantine, and I'll confess that from this great distance, I don't always grasp the subtleties. But this pub crisis has been ongoing for years, and I've been following it with interest/alarm. (For a visceral sense of loss, have a look at these photos.) Hope this is a viable solution.
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