PUBS that are going to the wall at the rate of 39 every week are victims of their greedy landlords, a damning report by MPs warns today.

"Alarming evidence" that the so-called 'pubcos' - the large companies that own and lease most pubs - are plunging the trade into crisis was condemned by the Commons business committee.

Its report found that most struggling licensees blamed their pubco - rather than tax, cheap supermarket alcohol, or the smoking ban - for their problems.

They were forced to pay high rent and buy beer at a high, 'tied' price, which meant the average pint cost around 25p more at a tenanted pub than at a managed one.

The committee also said it was "astonished" to learn that most licensees of pubs with an annual turnover of £500,000 earned under £15,000 - a pitiful three per cent rate of return.

The criticisms open up a new front in the growing campaign to 'Save the Great British Pub', after it was revealed that 106 have been lost across the region in just four years.

The hardest hit parliamentary constituencies are in North Yorkshire, with 12 pubs lost in both the Richmond constituency of William Hague and in Vale of York, the seat of fellow Conservative Anne McIntosh.

Also suffering are Middlesbrough (down 9), Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (down 8), Ryedale (down 8), Sunderland North (down 8), Bishop Auckland (down 7), Durham North (down 7) and Stockton North (down 7).

Anger has centred on Chancellor Alistair Darling's plans for tax on alcohol to rise by two per cent above the rate of inflation for the next four years, starting last month.

But Peter Luff, the Business Committee's Conservative chairman, said: "Our inquiry found alarming evidence indicating there may be serious problems caused by the dominance of the large pub companies.

"Pubcos do provide services and support to their tenants. There are good business development managers out there.

"However, there is a worrying pattern in the evidence presented to us of lack of support for lessees, of verbal agreements not honoured and, on occasion, of downright bullying."

The committee called for the Competition Commission to launch an urgent investigation into "strong indications that the existence of the tie pushes up prices to consumers".

However, it stopped short of demanding that the pubco system should simply be abolished, fearing that would hand too much power to brewers or distributors.

Campaigners have warned that 40,000 jobs are at risk if the pub closures continue at the current rate, on top of 40,000 thought to have already gone.

According to the report, there are 30,800 leased, or tenanted, pubs, compared with 17,200 freehouses and 9,000 directly managed by a pubco.