Peter Luff, the chairman of the Business and Enterprise Committee, has called on the government to delay its response to the report on pub company power until October.
In a letter to Kevin Brennan, the Minister for Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and Consumer Affairs, Luff said that the industry needed to be given some months to change and acknowledged that there had been “significant developments” since the publication of the report.
Luff, however, said that he had no intention of “letting the industry off the hook” and ruled out giving the sector six months as the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers had requested.
In a statement, Luff said: “There have been significant developments since we reported. It appears likely that Camra will launch a super-complaint to the OFT, and the ALMR is working with an industry group to negotiate changes in the industry.
“An early government response would not be able to consider the outcome of these developments, and the government might be constrained in what it said because of the reality or even the likelihood of a super-complaint.
“We would prefer to wait and see what progress is made on these developments rather than have an early and necessarily incomplete reply.”
