Belhaven Pub Partners unveils multi-million-pound support for tied tenants

Belhaven Pub Partners has announced a multi-million-pound investment in the next wave of financial support for its tied tenants to help them through the Covid-19 crisis – a move it says will benefit around 120 pubs across Scotland and last until nearly September at the earliest.

The Greene King division said the move will benefit around 120 pubs across Scotland. Picture: contributed.

The organisation said it will see rents slashed by 90 per cent for all tied pubs from 11 June until they can legally reopen, a concession that will continue in the first four weeks that a pub can legally reopen and then stay at 50 per cent for the next four weeks.

“As well as the rent concessions, the announcement also confirms that tied tenants will receive eight weeks of trade support when buying barrels of beer or cider from Belhaven after they reopen,” the Greene King division also stated.

The move follows the first wave of financial support from Belhaven Pub Partners that covered the initial 12-week period, which ran from 18 March to 10 June.

The organisation is keen to see more government support for the hospitality sector. Picture: contributed.

The first wave of support involved the launch of a Partner Support Fund and one-to-one talks with all tied pubs to understand their immediate financial situation and find out which ones needed immediate rent concessions as they had not been eligible for any government grants.

Belhaven said this latest additional help comes as it continues to work with trade associations on making the case to the UK and Scottish governments that further government support for the hospitality sector is needed as companies try to keep up with accumulating fixed costs while businesses remain closed.

Belhaven Pub Partners MD Wayne Shurvinton said: “From the outset, balancing as much support for our tenants as we possibly could alongside ensuring the long-term survival of Belhaven has been our priority.

“By deferring rents before pubs were ordered to close we removed any immediate cashflow concerns for our partners and since then have reassured them that we would support them in every way possible when it came to rent and I’m very pleased to announce these latest measures.

“None of us are immune to the financial implications of pubs closing and we all have to work together to survive this existential threat to our industry. I’m grateful to every single one of our tenants who has worked with us and trusted that we were doing all we could to look after them.

“We feel we’ve played our part and it is critical the government continues to play its part in supporting our sector. The support so far is extremely welcome but as a tenant ourselves with over 500 landlords, we have not received rent concessions in the way we are offering them to our tenants and further support on rent payments is needed to support the recovery of the pubs sector.”

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