Brewing giant Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) is breaking ranks with the industry to offer 19 pubs free of the controversial “beer tie”.

The tied deals favoured by much of the sector force publicans to buy beer at inflated prices from their overlords — a structure that has been under fierce attack this year.

Publicans say it drives many of them to ruin, forcing them to charge customers high prices for beer they can get more cheaply elsewhere and leaving them little cash to improve the pubs.

Now S&N, owned by Heineken, is offering free-of-tie leases on some pubs which have been dormant for more than four months.

Andy Braithwaite, head of lessee training and recruitment at S&N, told The Daily Telegraph: “Having a pub without a permanent lessee is not satisfactory for the individual business, the customers it serves or, given the overheads, for the company as a whole.”

Pub landlord pressure groups such as Fair Pint are likely to regard the news as a small victory in their continuing battle against the large breweries.