The beer barons who run Britain’s big pub companies are suddenly looking nervous. Last month the Commons Business and Enterprise Select Committee called for the Competition Commission to investigate the tied pub business model, under which tenants have to buy their beer and other services from the pub companies, at often inflated prices.

The report was initially shrugged off by the industry. After all, said the old hands, the beer tie has been the subject of 19 inquiries since 1966, all of which had concluded it was OK. Why should another one be any different?

Others took comfort from the revelation that Peter Luff, the Tory MP who chairs the committee, had bought multiple toilet seats, food mixers and microwaves at taxpayers’ expense. What right did such a man have to criticise the pub business?

Suddenly, the mood has changed. Roger Whiteside, the head of the tenanted and leased division at Punch Taverns, one of the most vilified pubcos, broke new ground this week by publicly agreeing with several of the report’s findings, including the need for greater transparency in the way rents are set and a fairer apportionment of fruit machine income — a particular bugbear of pub tenants.

Several pubco bosses met recently to thrash out some sort of co-ordinated response to the report, and the industry association hosts a wider gathering next week.

The industry hopes to persuade Lord Mandelson, who will decide whether to call in the Competition Commission, that it is addressing the concerns.

Executives point to the unfortunate precedent of the Beer Orders 20 years ago, which were an attempt to create increased competition in brewing and greater consumer choice. Instead, they all but destroyed the brewing industry and ended up spawning the giant pubcos that are now the subject of the current bar room brawl.

Lord Mandelson should heed the lessons of history and give the industry a chance to put its own house in order.

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