Agreed, ultimately people need to visit a pub for it to be sustainable. I don't want to get into the specifics about Southfields - it may have pubs now - the point was to give anecdotal support to the Lewisham Council finding that pubs have genuine social value to local communities and so should have some protection.

The tie of a pub is very relevant. If margins are reduced, this affects goods supplied to customers, wages paid, quality of management and ultimately makes it less likely that people will go there and/or value its community aspect. That another business may make more profit does not imply that any pub is not sustainable on that site. It is not surprising that a pubco, if they do not make a success of a site, would prefer that the site doesn't go to another pub business.

Am certainly not crying for the pubcos - they have caused the death of many fine independent breweries over the years. As for the pension funds they are even less of a concern - they hedge their bets by having a diverse portfolio.