Editing Pub (section)

===Tied house system===
{{see also|Pub chain|Tied house}}

The latter half of the 19th century saw increased competition within the brewing industry and, in an attempt to secure markets for their own products, breweries began rapidly buying local pubs and directly employing publicans to run them. Although some tied houses had existed in larger British towns since the 17th century, this represented a fundamental shift in the way that many pubs were operated and the period is now widely regarded as the birth of the tied house system.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lasopaben773.weebly.com/greene-king-retail-staff-handbook.html|title= Greene King|work= Staff handbook}}</ref>

Decreasing numbers of [[Free house (pub)|free houses]] and difficulties in obtaining new licences meant a continual expansion of their tied estates was the only feasible way for breweries to generate new trade. By the end of the century more than 90 per cent of public houses in England were owned by breweries, and the only practical way brewers could now grow their tied estates was to turn on each other.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/x9Kdc4PlhJ/ |title=The Tied House System |work=Craft Beer and Brewing}}</ref> Buy-outs and amalgamations became commonplace, and by the end of the 1980s there were only six large brewers left in the UK, collectively known as the Big Six; [[Allied Breweries|Allied]], [[Bass Brewery|Bass]], [[Courage Brewery|Courage]], [[Grand Metropolitan]], [[Scottish & Newcastle]] and [[Whitbread]].<ref>{{cite web|url= https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmtrdind/128/12805.htm|title= House of Commons Select Committee on Trade and Industry report|publisher= Parliament of the United Kingdom|access-date= 29 April 2020|archive-date= 6 August 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200806114141/https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmtrdind/128/12805.htm|url-status= dead}}</ref>

In an attempt to increase the number of free houses, by forcing the big breweries to sell their tied houses, the Government introduced [[the Beer Orders]] in 1989. The result, however, was that the Big Six melted away into other sectors; selling their brewing assets and spinning off their tied houses, largely into the hands of branded pub chains, called pubcos. As these were not brewers, they were not governed by the Beer Orders and tens of thousands of pubs remain tied, much in the same way that they had been previously. In reality, government interference did very little to improve Britain's tied house system and all its large breweries are now in the hands of foreign or multi-national companies.<ref>{{cite book | last=Spicer | first=J. | last2=Thurman | first2=C. | last3=Walters | first3=J. | last4=Ward | first4=Simon | title=Intervention in the Modern UK Brewing Industry | publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]| publication-place=Basingstoke| date=2011-12-06 | isbn=978-0-230-29857-6 |pages=152–164}}</ref>