Campaign launched to support pubs through Covid-19 closures

Local MP Alicia Kearns has built a cross-party group of 55 parliamentary colleagues to persuade the nation’s largest pub owner, Ei and Stonegate, to make the gesture.

The company is understood to have so far offered to defer rent for thousands of their tenants for an unknown period of time but some have since been asked how quickly they intend to pay back rent accrued during the lockdown period.

If rent was cancelled during the extended closure period it will save the pubs, which also include the Fox and Hounds at Knossington and several across Rutland, having to pay back tens of thousands of pounds in arrears.

Mrs Kearns is concerned about the financial burden this would bring for local pubs and the imapct it would have on their future viability.

She has organised a letter signed by 55 MPs from four parties calling for Ei to offer a rent holiday, or equivalent level of support of some other kind, to all pubs in their group.

“Despite the uniquely devastating impact the pandemic has had on the pub industry, across the country publicans have stepped forward to join the national battle against COVID-19; from providing free meals to self-shielding individuals and NHS workers to expanding their services to meet the needs of our communities,” said Mrs Kearns.

“It is only right that Ei stand by their hardworking tenants at this time and offer meaningful support to our pubs so they can weather this storm and continue bringing our communities together when our country has healed.”