Pubs Code Adjudicator to step down next May

Paul Newby has announced he will leave office at the end of his current term as Pubs Code Adjudicator, in May 2020, and will not be seeking reappointment.

The chartered surveyor was appointed to the role by the government in 2016 to serve a four-year term.

According to the announcement from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Newby faced many challenges during his term in office, including “the introduction of new and technical legislation, high expectations of change in the regulated pub market and a pugnacious stakeholder environment”.

Commenting on his departure, Newby said: “The introduction of the Pubs Code has been a major regulatory intervention in the long-established tied pub model and a business culture engrained over many years. This has not been an easy task with significant resistance and conflict along the way.

Even so three years on the tied pub landscape is different compared to July 2016 when the Code came into force, the principal effect being to rebalance the relationship between pub tenants and their regulated landlords, giving tenants greater control over their business and the opportunity to make better informed decisions and the best choices for them. I am proud to have played my part in that.”

Newby added that there is still “substantial work” to be done in order to achieve parliament’s aims embodied in the Pubs Code, notably a speedy and accessible right for tenants to go free of tie via the MRO option.

BEIS will shortly begin the process of appointing a successor.