Pub closures survey: it's grim up north
The West Midlands and Scotland have been hit hardest in the national pub blight that sees six pubs close per day.
That's a key finding of CGA's survey of recent closure rates nationally.
The figures are broken down by Parliamentary constituency as part of the campaigns by the British Beer & Pub Association, the Campaign for Real Ale and the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group to show politicians the scale of the closure crisis.
It compares pub numbers in February 2009 with figures from June 2007, just before the English smoking ban, and data from the last general election in 2005.
More than half of constituencies with fastest closure rates since 2007 are in the West Midlands and Scotland. Dudley South lost the greatest proportion of pub stock — 28% (29 pubs).
Big job losses in the West Midlands, and the fact that many of the pubs are smaller and landlocked, have been given as reasons for closures in that region.
The early smoking ban and fears of costly licensing reform have been blamed for above-average closure rates north of the border.
Other reasons given for closures have been a move towards change-of-use, over-regulation and rent levels.
The Cities of London & Westminster has seen the biggest number of closures since June 2007, 30 from a pub stock of 949.
Manchester Central has seen the biggest fall in numbers since the 2005 election, with 50 fewer pubs.
Overall, the study shows there were 61,677 pubs in England, Scotland and Wales in February 2009, down 3,037 in 20 months and 4,271 fewer than in June 2005.
Get writing to your MP
Now is your chance to let your MP understand how the current pub crisis is affecting their own constituency.
Download the list here , find the figure for your constituency and then email or write to your MP.
Find their email address at www.writetothem.com or post a letter to them at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. For full analysis click here.
