Guest beer right for tied pubs: what the Budget actually promised, how Scotland's already works, and what to sort now

A guest beer right for tied pubs in England and Wales is coming, but it isn't law yet. In the Budget on 28 October 2026 the government said it intends to legislate for a "Guest Beer" provision in the Pubs Code, so tied tenants of the big pub companies can stock beers from outside the tie. There's no start date and no detail. Scotland already has one, in force since 30 March 2025, and it's the best preview we've got of what's coming.

I'm a tied tenant, so this is the line in the Budget I read twice. It's a big deal on paper. It's also one sentence long, and one sentence doesn't change anything on your bar until there's a law behind it. So here's exactly what was said, what Scotland's version looks like, what a guest line could be worth on your margin, and the bits you can sort now so you're ready.

What the Budget actually said

Two lines in the Budget document, word for word. In the main text: "the government intends to introduce a 'Guest Beer' provision in the Pubs Code, covering England and Wales. This will support brewers to continue to gain access to the market, whilst giving consumers a greater choice of beers available at the pub."

And in the list of tax and policy measures: "The government intends to legislate to introduce a 'Guest Beer' provision to support brewers to continue to access pubs covered by the Pubs Code in England and Wales, building on existing voluntary action taken by Pub Companies in order to offer tied tenants greater flexibility on the range of beers they stock."

Read those carefully. It needs legislation, so it isn't happening tomorrow. It sits inside the Pubs Code, so it only reaches tenants the Code already covers. And the government is "building on" what the pub companies already do voluntarily, which tells you the pubcos have been in the room. Nobody has said how many beers, what size of brewer, which formats, or what the pubco can charge you for it. The Morning Advertiser's Budget write-up says the same: legislation will be needed before it takes effect.

Who it would cover

The Pubs Code only applies to a pub-owning business that is the landlord of 500 or more tied pubs in England and Wales. That's the big six. If you're tied to a smaller family brewer or a regional pubco under that line, the Code doesn't reach you today, and a guest beer right written into the Code won't either unless the law changes who's in scope.

If you're not sure whether your pubco is covered, the Pubs Code Adjudicator lists what it regulates, and my guide to the Pubs Code before you sign walks through the rights you already have.

We've been here before

This isn't a new idea. The Beer Orders of 1989 made brewers who owned more than 2,000 licensed premises let their tied houses sell a draught cask-conditioned beer from someone else, and from 1997 a bottle-conditioned one too. It was revoked by an order made on 20 December 2002, in force 28 days later.

By then the big brewers had sold their pubs to pub companies that didn't brew, and the guest beer rule only ever bit on brewers. So it quietly stopped mattering long before it was scrapped. The lesson for this one: the wording decides everything. Who it binds, and what counts as a guest, is where it'll be won or lost.

How Scotland's guest beer right works

Scotland got there first. The Tied Pubs (Scotland) Act 2021 required the Scottish Pubs Code to include guest beer agreements, and the rules have been in force since 30 March 2025. Because England's version is still a blank page, this is the closest thing to a draft we have.

The Scottish guest beer agreement, from the Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024, Part 5 (in force 30 March 2025)

Rule	What it says
How many	At least one beer chosen by the tenant, whoever brews it
Price	The tenant sets the price to the customer
Changing it	As often as the tenant wants, without penalty
Brewer size	Not a brand that produced more than 5,000 hectolitres in the previous production year
Format	No restriction on how it's bought, stored or sold: cask, keg, bottle or can
Who you buy from	Anyone the tenant chooses
The lease	Can only be changed as far as needed to add the agreement, plus a service equipment charge if agreed
Penalties	The tenant can't be penalised, including being made to drop another product
How to ask	In writing. The pubco must send a written offer within 4 weeks
Costs	Each side pays its own legal costs, and both must keep costs and admin down

That 5,000 hectolitre cap is the bit to understand. 5,000 hectolitres is about 880,000 pints a year of one brand. That shuts out the national brands, but nearly every local micro and plenty of decent regional beers sit well under it. If the brand grows past the cap, the pubco can give written notice to change to another one, with a fair timescale.

How it's going in Scotland

Brewers' trade body SIBA surveyed more than half of Scotland's pub tenants about it, reported in April 2026. Only 45% knew the right existed. About one in five had a guest beer agreement. But of the tenants who had one, 86% said it was improving trade, and 94% of those who'd applied rated it useful.

The bad bits are worth knowing in advance. SIBA said pub companies were dragging out the process, some tenants were wrongly told they'd have to renegotiate their tenancy, and some reported being discouraged by landlord representatives, one told it "wouldn't look good" at renewal. None of that is in the rules. It's what happens when a right exists on paper and the tenant doesn't know it word for word.

What a guest line could be worth

Nobody knows what English pubcos will be allowed to charge, so treat this as the size of the prize rather than a promise. The nearest real numbers I have are from my tied vs free-trade price comparison, which put one big pubco's April 2026 list next to a free-trade wholesaler's prices on the same nine gallon casks.

Gap per sellable pint on a nine gallon cask, tied list vs free trade, ex VAT (October 2026 comparison)

Cask	Gap per sellable pint	One cask a week, per year
Lowest gap in the comparison	50p	£1,800 on about 70 pints a week
Highest gap in the comparison	87p	£3,000 on about 67 pints a week

Those are national ales, which wouldn't qualify under a Scottish-style cap, so a small brewer's cask will be priced differently. Small brewers do pay less duty through Small Producer Relief, and the Budget put another £10m a year into that from February 2027, which helps their prices. But the honest point is simpler. One guest cask a week bought on open-market terms is plausibly worth a four-figure sum a year to a tied pub, before you count the customers who come in for it.

Two things could eat that. A service equipment charge for the line, which Scotland allows. And the rent. Under the Pubs Code you should be no worse off tied than free of tie, and the tie is meant to be paid for through a lower rent, so expect a pubco to argue that beer bought outside the tie changes the sums at your next rent assessment. That's my reading of where the argument goes, not anything the Budget said.

The stock control bit nobody's talking about

Here's the trap. Most tied estates run flow monitoring on the beer lines. The meter counts what goes through the tap and the pubco compares it with what you bought from them. Right now, beer on a tied line that the pubco didn't sell you looks like buying out, and buying out can cost you a lot of money.

A guest beer agreement makes it legal. It doesn't make the meter understand it. So when this arrives, protect yourself from day one:

• Keep the signed agreement somewhere you can put your hand on it.
• Agree in writing which line or tap is the guest line, and keep the guest beer on that line only.
• Keep every guest invoice and delivery note, with the brewer's name and the brand on it.
• Count the guest as its own line on every stocktake, so its pints reconcile on their own.

If the flow figure on that tap ever gets questioned, you want to hand over a stack of invoices that add up to the pints, not try to remember what you had on in March.

What to do now, before it's law

Ask your BDM, in writing, what guest or local beer option your pubco already offers. The government says some are doing this voluntarily, so you may be able to get something now. Get the answer in an email, not a chat at the bar. My guide to keeping notes of BDM visits covers why.

Work out which line you'd give up. It shouldn't be your best-selling cask. Try it on the slowest one, the line you're keeping on because you feel you should. A cask needs selling inside about three days once it's on, so check your real rate of sale first. The stock days guide shows how.

Find two local brewers under the size cap and ask what they'd charge for a firkin delivered. That's the number you'll need when this lands, and it's free to find out.

And here's the idea I'd steal from the Scottish pubs that are making it pay: make a noise about it. A local beer is only worth having if people know it's there. Put the brewery's name on the board, on the TVs and on the bar. The beer is the reason to visit. The brewer will usually share your post too.

My take

It's the best line for tied tenants in a Budget for years, and it's also just a line. Scotland shows two things. The right works when tenants use it, and most tenants won't use it because they don't know it exists or get talked out of it. So when the English rules are published, read them yourself, put your request in writing the week it's allowed, and keep your guest line's paperwork tighter than any other line in the cellar. I'll update this guide the day the detail comes out.

If you're weighing up whether you'd be better off out of the tie altogether, my guides on tied vs free of tie and going Market Rent Only go through the sums.

Common questions

Is there a guest beer right in England?

Not yet. The Budget on 28 October 2026 said the government intends to legislate for a Guest Beer provision in the Pubs Code for England and Wales. Until that law is made, there is no legal guest beer right in England or Wales, though some pub companies offer a guest beer option voluntarily.

When will the guest beer right start?

No date has been given. The Budget said legislation is needed first, and no draft or consultation had been published as of 3 November 2026.

Which pubs will the guest beer right cover?

It is planned as part of the Pubs Code, which only applies to tenants of pub-owning businesses with 500 or more tied pubs in England and Wales. Tenants of smaller pub companies and brewers are not covered by the Code today.

How does the guest beer right work in Scotland?

Since 30 March 2025, tied tenants in Scotland can ask in writing for a guest beer agreement and the pub company must offer one within 4 weeks. The tenant can sell at least one beer of their choice, at their own price, in any format, from any supplier, and change it as often as they like, as long as the brand produced no more than 5,000 hectolitres the previous year.

Can a pub company charge for a guest beer line?

In Scotland the agreement can include a service equipment charge if the parties agree one, but the tenant cannot be penalised in any other way. What will be allowed in England and Wales has not been announced.