Greg Mulholland calls for six-month moratorium on sale of pubs

From The Publican site:

Communities should be given a six-month window to decide if they want to buy a threatened local pub, an MP has argued.

During a Westminster Hall debate today, Lib Dem Greg Mulholland said the current government “right to buy” proposals would have no “substantial effect”.

A government consultation on what is now being called a community "right to challenge" was launched earlier this month - and ends on May 3.

Mulholland said: “It’s not actually a community right to buy, it’s a community right to try."

“It’s a right to put a bid together. The question I have to ask is how many communities will try to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds if at the end of that period an owner can sell to Tesco for slightly more.”

He added: “It will not stop profitable pubs being closed against the wishes of the community.”

Good stuff. Liberalism must be about more than economic theory. It must be concerned with the texture of life as it is lived and with the flourishing of human institutions. And the pub is a valuable and threatened institution in British life.