Village pub closure puzzle (From York Press)

A spokeswoman for owners Enterprise Inns said there was “no truth whatsoever” in rumours that the company had asked the former publicans to leave.

This is b***oc*s. The family, yes, it was a family business, that ran the pub for 6 years had already weathered year on year outrageous rent increases. And this was on the back of falling sales due to the recession in 2008 and the smoking ban.
Last year Mr and Mrs Taylor decided that they wanted to retire and pass the business on to their daughter and husband, who had helped run the business since they took it over 6 years ago.
Mr Taylor approached Enterprise and let them know that is what he wanted to do. They made an arrangement whereby Mr Taylor returned the lease in exchange for the £64,000 a year rent currently charged by Enterprise to be reduced in order to give his daughter and her husband a fair chance to get a good start.
(It should be mentioned at this point that Enterprise, again on the back of falling sales, had intended to increase the rent by a further 5% from January 1st 2012.)
In the event Enterprise agreed, in principle, to Mr Taylors request. However, somewhere during this process Enterprise renaged on this agreement as other publicans in the area were quick to let them know, when it became quite obvious that Enterprise were approaching other parties with a view to offering them the lease on the Village Inn.
In a last bid to retain the pub they met Enterprise on the morning of New Years Eve in an attempt to come to some sort of agreement. Enterprise refused to reduce the rent, and so a family business was wrapped up in the space of 24 hours, as they had been ordered to vacate the premises by midday on New Years Day, or be liable for another months rent.
Thats what happened.

I wonder how much rent the new landlord will be paying a year? I'll bet it isn't £64,000.

At least the people in the village will get their pub back. Alright shagg!

enterprise has ripped the heart out of the village , and all because they are fat cats who only see the £ signs,the Taylors and Courtneys were well respected in our village and had a fantastic reputation for the food they served , enterprise lost that reputation in 1 day , good luck to whoever get it because they will need it , thepub was supposed to be open this week well guess what enterprise has prob mis led everyone again , they do not give a dam for the hard working people of this village and we have made our feelings known to them and how disgusted we are with them