Pub tenants get closer to toasting new deal Publicans campaigning for reforms in the long-established "tight tie" with big pub companies are poised to move a stage closer to achieving their aim tomorrow. The changes, embodied in the Small Business Bill, will be debated in the Commons, where a group of Coalition MPs will attempt to win support for more changes. The "beer tie" system, with its restrictions on the purchase of drinks from competitors and limits on freedom of rent agreements, is being blamed for the increase in pub closures, uncompetitive prices and the failure to attract more tenants. Almost 20,000 pubs have shut over the past 20 years and a survey by the Campaign for Real Ale showed almost 60pc of landlords in tied tenancies earned less than the national minimum wage equivalent salary of £10,000 a year. The new Bill, a Liberal Democrat initiative, gives the publicans new rights under a statutory code. An independent adjudicator will have the power to resolve disputes and enforce the new code. All tied tenants will have the right to request a rent review if they have not had one for five years. But some Coalition MPs want the Government to go further. They will introduce an amendment tomorrow to allow all pub landlords to buy beer on the open market.