Enterprise caught out over RPI figure
Enterprise Inns has reduced a tenant’s annual rent increase after he claimed an outdated retail price index (RPI) figure was used to calculate it.
Yeoman: succesful claim against RPI rise
The pub company has been unable to comment on whether this means other tenants would see lower rent rises this year.
Ally Yeoman was told in a letter dated 16 January his annual rent would rise by £958 to £32,905 from 1 February. This is in line with the RPI level from November, which was 3%.
The licensee queried this figure after checking with the Office of National
Statistics, which showed the most recent RPI available at the time, for December, was 0.9%.
Yeoman, of the Bullers Arms in Landrake, Cornwall, has now been sent a revised statement saying the increase will be 0.9%, or £288.
He said: “Enterprise has 7,500 pubs. Are they going to send letters to everyone saying [the rent increase] is not 3% but 0.9%?
“For some licensees on the margins, 3% would put them over the edge.
“People are struggling and prices are going up. There are places closing down. The last thing you want is a letter like this to be sent.
“Pubs may be running OK now, but after the letter about an increase in rent, it could make licensees want to close the door and throw away the keys.”
Enterprise has declined to comment.
