PEL was not the issue with Sam Smiths - when licensing was changed it would have been very easy for the pubs to have applied for PEL at the time but they decided not to; it was PRS that was used as the reason.

It might have more to do with Humphrey's view that a pub should be like George Orwell's ideal pub described in his essay The Moon Under Water.

As he applies all decisions across all the pubs then it is very unlikely. I met him a while back in our local pub and took the chance to speak to him about it as he replied to two letters I wrote him and spoke to me on the phone after I phoned him at his home at the time. I think it unlikely that this would change much as the liability for PRS would still be there and everything suggests that the cash isn't there to do it nor the will.