CAMRA hosts community workshop to help save pubs

‘List your London local’, a campaign in partnership with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), was held last week to provide advice to communities on how they can raise funds to buy a pub, in light of figures that show that 26 pubs close a week across the country.

CAMRA aims to increase the number of pubs listed as community assets from 67, as it stands currently, to 300 by the end of the year.

Locals were told about the Community Right to Bid scheme which allows pub supporters to pause the sale of buildings or land they care about, such as a pub, and give them time to develop a bid to buy it. Land can be nominated to be part of a register of “assets of community value”, and if land on this list is offered for sale a community will have up to six months to prepare a bid.

The workshop was attended by 60 people involved in community campaigns to save pubs across London and beyond. It was hosted in partnership with Locality, a national network of community-led organisations, Community Shares, a programme funded by DCLG, Plunkett Foundation, an organisation supporting community ownership, and Pub is the Hub, a non-profit body offering advice to licensees and community services.

Local assets​

Don Foster MP, parliamentary under secretary of state for the Department for Communities and Local Government, made a surprise visit and encouraged all present to make use of the new powers provided to communities to protect pubs and other local assets.

The Ivy House community pub team, one group in attendance, shared their advice on how to successfully run a community pub.

The venue, in Nunhead, south east London, was the first building in the city to be listed under the Localism Act and is London’s first community-owned pub. The community received £144,500 of share orders by the close of the Community Share Issue at the end of May, to save the pub from being converted into flats.

Jonathan Mail, head of public affairs at CAMRA, said: “We were very pleased to take part in this successful workshop to provide advice and support to assist communities seeking to protect their pubs by listing them as assets of community value and through community pub buyouts. Pubs are already the most listed building type under the assets of community value scheme which demonstrates their value to local people.

“The work being done by the Government, Locality, Community Shares, Plunkett Foundation and Pub is the Hub to support local communities looking to protect local assets is encouraging for the future of pubs.”