Greene King gives 90% rent relief to tenants

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 21 May, 2020

Greene King has announced it will offer a major rent reduction to its tenants to give them a “fighting chance” of surviving the coronavirus pandemic.

The pub group, based in Suffolk, has already provided around £4m in rent concessions for some 975 tied pubs across its estate.

Now, is it promising to slash 90% of the rent due for these pubs for a period of four weeks, from 11 June, falling to 50% thereafter, again for a period of four weeks.

Further support is also being offered when buying barrels of beer or cider from Greene King after venues reopen. This follows on from the company’s earlier pledge to replace unopened or out of date kegs, which has been estimated to cost the company in excess of £1.3m.

“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,” Wayne Shurvinton, MD of Greene King Pub Partners, said.

“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.”

Today, Nik Antona, national chairman of pub lobby group CAMRA, called for even further support.

“Those tied tenants that do re-open will need continued support beyond the first two months. Rents should reflect the reduced turnover that pubs will have as long as social distancing requirements remain in place,” he said.

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