William Hill asks landlords to cut rent after fixed-odds limit.

William Hill has written to its landlords asking for rent cuts of up to 50%, blaming the difficulties caused by the government’s decision to reduce the maximum stakes on fixed-odds betting machines. The bookmaker confirmed yester-day that about 2,000 landlords had received letters about reductions, after a report in Property Week.

Nicola Frampton, director of retail at William Hill, said: “The purpose of the letter is to inform landlords that we are taking some extremely difficult decisions about the size of our betting shop business and that these decisions will have a direct impact on our landlord partners.”