MP clashes with Ted Tuppen over pub rent assessments

07 July 2011 by
MP clashes with Ted Tuppen over pub rent assessments

Enterprise Inns boss Ted Tuppen has guaranteed that all rent agreements his company reaches with tenants are signed off in accordance with guidance from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The guarantee came in an at times heated exchange between Tuppen, who was this morning appearing in front of the House of Commons Business Information and Skills (BIS) Committee, and Conservative MP Brian Binley.

Binley, on the basis of evidence from the first session of the Committee last week, highlighted concerns that BDMs and regional managers at pubcos including Enterprise Inns were not trained in the RICS code of practice on assessing pub rents, potentially leading to unfair rent assessments.

Tuppen admitted that "very few" of his firm's BDMs were RICS members but attempted to assure the committee that all rent bids and rent agreements were signed off by RICS-qualified valuers.

"I have letter from RICS which says they have absoluely no evidence we are not following code," Tuppen told the Committee.

He also set out the process his company has followed since September 2010, just before the RICS guidance was updated: "The regional manager is responsible for the pubs in his area and in the first instance sets what he believes to be the rent. That rent goes no further until it is signed off by his boss, our divisional director and does not go any further than that without being being signed off by our licensed trade valuer. We have three of them who look at every single P&L account and every single rent bid to ensure that it complies with RICS guidance," he said.

But Binley pressed him further, asking: "Many of them BDMs] are not knowledgeable in rent and they are doing the rent negotiations. The fact that somebody signs them off up the line and is not having contact with your tenant doesn't really answer the questions. It is the BDMs who have the contact with tenants. They are not members of RICS, they are not following the guideance. Does that disturb you?"

Tuppen replied: "Not in the least. The job of the BDM is many and varied. We will not allow a single P&L account or rent bid to be negotiated until it is signed off by a RICS-qualified surveyor.

When asked by Labour MP and chairman Adrian Bailey if Tuppen could guarantee that every rent agreement that has ben signed off had been arrived at in accordance with RICS guidance, Tuppen confirmed that he could.

Tuppen was one of six industry figures appearing in front of the Committee this morning. The others were: Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the BBPA; Roger Whiteside, managing director of the leased division at Punch Taverns; Alistair Darby, managing director of Marston's pub company; Paul Wells, chairman of Charles Wells and chairman of the Independent Family Brewers; and Simon Longbottom managing director of Greene King's Pub Partners division.

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By Neil Gerrard

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