Two city MPs have backed a measure aimed at helping the pub trade.

The MPs are supporting a call for a statutory code to ensure that those running pubs are no worse off if theirs is a tied house than if it’s a free house.

Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for Hove, and Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, have both signed early day motion 57.

The motion is part of the Fair Deal for Your Local campaign and has the support of several organisations but not the big pub-owning companies.

Companies such as Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns have come in for criticism for taking more than is fair or sustainable from pub profits in inflated product prices and excessive rents.

As a result, many critics have said that pubs have been going bust not necessarily as a result of their own failings.

Mr Weatherley, said: “This bill will help to secure a sustainable future for Britain’s pubs because pubs are in many areas central to community life.”

The motion follows a series of critical reports from the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee and its predecessors.

Simon Kirby, the Conservative MP for Brighton Kemptown and a former pub owner, was a member of the select committee when it published its most recent report on the subject.