Let's Drink to a Lib Dem Success! Greg Mulholland MP Wins a Fair Deal for Our Local Pubs.

Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland MP, is the Chair of the Parliamentary Save the Pub Group. He is also the Coordinator of the Fair Deal for Your Local Campaign. Here is a shortened version of what he wrote in The Parliament Magazine about the recent victory on Clause 42 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill.

Tuesday 18th November will go down in history as the day that has changed the face of a whole business sector and is set to save that much loved national institution, the Great British Pub. What I am honoured is already being called "Mulholland's Law" is the biggest shake-up of the pub sector since the Beer Orders and it was brought about from the Government backbenches.

Ministers tried to stave off rebellion by offering yet another 'review', but there had already been years of obstruction, Select Committee Reports and reviews by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. Two thirds of responses to the Government's consultation called for the 'Market Rent Only' option for large pubco tenants. There was a clear majority of support among MPs, so you'd have thought the small minority in Government and Parliament would let democracy to prevail. They wouldn't do so willingly, so we knew we had to defeat them.

As MPs on all sides waited for the result, with many thousands of campaigners following on television and on Twitter, the drama was heightened further by confusion over the count of the votes. But at last the 'Mother of Parliaments' had voted to reform of the most unethical business models in modern Britain with an impressive majority of 25 in a whipped vote - 283 MPs in favour and 258 against. However there is no doubt that, had the Government allowed a free vote, the majority would have been truly huge.

Only the bullet proof glass on front of the Stranger's Gallery prevented MPs from hearing the huge roar from the group of dedicated campaigners who had come to see the outcome, never really daring to believe that they and we would carry the day and win. Tears were shed, pints were pulled and celebrations happened - not just in the Enterprise Inns-owned Eagle Ale House in Battersea, run by Fair Pint stalwarts and award winning licensees Simon Clarke and Dave Law, where the incredibly hardworking volunteers of the Fair Deal for Your Local steering group gathered - but in thousands of pubs up and down the country.

The only real opponents to this simple but much needed reform was a small group of out-of-touch MPs who either have very close links with the companies opposing reform or who choose to ignore the indefensible reality of the pubco tied business model. They may now start to find that it is time to rethink their position - or their local licensees, CAMRA members and voters may help them to reflect on not doing so.

Very notably, MPs and campaigners from all sides of the political spectrums and organisations as diverse as the Federation of Small Businesses and the Forum of Private Business and trade unions came together to achieve this fight, working with CAMRA, licensee organisations and the Parliamentary Save the Pub Group. The way ten organisations managed to work together under one campaign umbrella is a testament not just to them, but equally to the importance that they have given to this issue, an issue not just about pubs, publicans and business but about fairness and about justice.

Politically this is not now reversible. The argument has been compressively won. A large majority of MPs, from all parties, thousands of pubco licensees, tens of thousands of campaigners and countless pub lovers will not allow this to be stopped, delayed or watered down. In reality, for all their threats of legal action, the large companies and their well paid lobbyists and public affairs companies know that. It is time for the sector to move on and change.

So what will this mean for pubs and for the country? The Market Rent Only option will ensure a fair split of pub profits between the big and small businesses - the pubco and the publican - whether tied or free of tie. This will allow many more pubs to survive and thrive and to continue to contribute to their communities and the economy encouraging investment and more jobs. Independent research carried out for the highly respected Federation of Small Business showed that this simple change, which simply allows a fairer split of pub profits, would lead to the creation of nearly 10,000 jobs and an overall benefit to the economy of £78 million.

It is good news for small brewers too. Currently pubco tied pubs cannot deal direct with their local brewers. A Market Rent Only option would lead to better and fairer access to the pub market for small brewers and cider producers which will increase consumer choice. It would allow publicans and their families to earn a living, often denied to them by pubcos taking the lions' share the pub profits. For the consumer, it will mean a cheaper pint in many pubs, free from the outrageous price lists, an end at last to the pubco price escalator.

Change is here and it is going to happen. At last, after years of campaigning, the fortress has been breached and the walls of the unfair Pubco Tied model are tumbling down. A victory for people power over well connected vested interests, for Parliament over Government, for real enterprise over Enterprise Inns, for small business over crony capitalism. It has been a triumph of campaigning and a blow for democracy. It is time for a brighter future for thousands of hard working licensees and for many communities who care about their pubs. It is at last time for a Fair Deal for Your Local.

Greg Mulholland MP is CAMRA's Parliamentary Campaigner of the Year and a Top 40 CAMRA campaigner of all time. Twitter @thepubchampion