MPs faced criticism today for failing to curb the power of pub chains which campaigners claim was heaping pressure on tenants and stifling consumer choice.

The Trade and Industry Committee launched an inquiry amid concern that too many pubs were now owned by a small number of companies.

It was also alleged so-called "pubcos" were treating their tenants unfairly.

But the committee report said there was no evidence to suggest a widespread problem although it suggested improvements in some areas.

Instead the report turned the spotlight on the large brewers who, it said, retained a stranglehold on the distribution of beer.

The inquiry was sparked by a complaint from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) about what it saw as the growing influence of companies that own large pub estates.

There are currently seven large pubcos in the UK. The largest two, Enterprise and Punch, have more than 8,000 pubs each.

The committee said it had found no evidence that one pubco or brewer held a dominant position in the market, a view shared by the Office of Fair Trading.

The MPs also rejected the idea of replacing "beer ties", a system under which tenants have to buy virtually all their drinks from their pubco.

"It is likely pubcos, as property companies, would offset the loss of income derived from the removal of the tie by charging higher rent," said the report.

But pubcos should be more open in the way they calculated rents, be flexible with the beer tie and about other contractual obligations, according to the report.

The committee highlighted the difficulties for small brewers wanting to supply pubco tenants but was more critical of the system for distributing beer.

The market, it said, was controlled by three international brewers: Carlsberg UK, Scottish and Newcastle, and TradeTeam.

The FSB said the committee had underestimated the scale of the problems licensees faced and their fundamental cause.

Mark Hastings, from the British Beer and Pub Association, said: "The committee has confirmed that no one pubco or brewer holds a dominant position and that there are no competition issues.

"That's great news for our customers and good news for the industry as a whole."