The communities rescuing their pubs from the brink

As challenging times lead to more pub closures, community groups are increasingly stepping into the breach.

The Office for National Statistics cites 970 fewer pubs since pre-Covid.

The number of Community-owned pubs (COPs) has risen from 56 in 2017 to 192 in 2023, three of which are in Cornwall, eight in Devon, according to the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

The BBC has spoken to three pubs at different stages of community ownership to discuss the benefits and pitfalls.

In March 2023 Loddiswell, an ancient parish by South Devon's River Avon, lost its "last pub".

At one time there had been three, but "one by one" they closed, villager Janice Gordon said.

Determined to save the 16th Century Loddiswell Inn from developers, the Loddiswell Community Pub Group is among 73 initiatives campaigning to buy their pubs, CAMRA said.

"What we have in this pub is a lot of history and people are just getting fed up of losing things that matter to us," said Mrs Gordon, a member of the steering group.

"The village has really come together."

They have registered the building as a "community asset", buying time to raise the £275,000 price tag, through donations, selling shares and grants.

The vision is to create "more than a pub", she said, a community space for meetings, groups, a library and a meal delivery service for pensioners.

Roger Pinder, landlord in the late nineties, also village town crier, said pledges had already reached £25,000.

"The pub is part of me, I've got a passion for it and if I were a bit younger I'd be taking it on myself," he said.

"I'm very humbled by the way people have come forward."

Villager Tia Bryant said the pub's closure had made it "quite hard to meet people".

As well as selling shares, the group has received grants from South Hams District Council and Devon County Council, with bids into the government's levelling up fund.

As pubs struggle with "energy bills and rising costs", communities were increasingly stepping up, Paul Ainsworth from CAMRA, said.

He said COPs were "well-placed" to tackle the challenges due to a solid customer base, community feedback and ownership of the freehold, removing concerns over a mortgage or rent.

Cornwall's COPs are the New Inn, Manaccan, the Prince of Wales, Newtown St Martin and the Old Ship Inn in Cawsand.

In Devon, there are the Cadeleigh Arms, Cornwood Inn, Drewe Arms, the Sir Walter Raleigh, East Budleigh, the Tally Ho, Littlehempston, the Royal Oak, Meavy, the Kings Arms, Strete and the Stoke Canon Inn.

The community behind the Cornwood Inn, who took over the pub in 2020, admits it has "weathered a few storms" to survive.

In 2019, the pub was on its way to auction having piqued the interest of housing developers.

Nick Pound, director of the Cornwood Inn Action Group, said they secured a £300,000 loan from individuals in the community to swoop in and buy it as a "community asset".

They have since sold shares to repay the funds, helped by a grant from the Plunkett Foundation's "More than a Pub" scheme.

"We have a large number of volunteers who will just come and do stuff for the pub because it's so important for the village," said Mr Pound, who said it had been a "hard journey".

The pub has a library, hosts groups and teams and holds regular affordable pensioner lunches.

Manager Tina Forbes, hired to run the pub, said Covid and the cost of living crisis had impacted.

"But the fact we are still here two-and-a-half years later is testament to what we do.

"The village is at the heart of what we do."

Regular Preston de Mendonca, a retired Plymouth GP, said: "This is my main social space and I've really bought into it because I'm a shareholder...along with everyone else in the village."

John Longden, chief executive of Pub is the Hub, a not-for-profit advising publicans, said running a pub was a "complex business", adding: "Whilst community ownership has been a success for a small number of individual pubs there can be a number of pitfalls. "

Pub is the Hub said:

About 30 miles north of Cornwood, in Drewesteignton, a community group has just picked up the key to the Drewe Arms.

Toby Rubbra said its closure in October 2022 felt like the "heart had been ripped out of the community", and the Drewesteignton Community Society was formed.

Members raised more than £550,000, through shares, grants and loans, to buy the venue from pub group Stonegate, and refurbish it.

There were 420 investors, from as far afield as America and Canada, said Mr Rubbra.

Mr Rubbra said: "Our purpose is to sustainably preserve the Drewe as a vibrant pub but also a social hub."

With an aim to reopen the pub in Spring 2024, this would include a "meals on wheels" service for pensioners in the village, he said.

Steve Alton of the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII), said pubs faced "unfair energy costs", inflation, consumers cutting back and the key in the first instance was to "safeguard long-standing publicans".

He said with only one in two publicans breaking even, lower taxation and more support from government was needed.

"I'm not surprised that when, unfortunately, that publican has decided that enough is enough that communities want to step in and try and make it work," he said.

"But let's try and save the pub before it gets to that point."

An HM Treasury spokesperson said pubs played a "vital role" in communities and it had extended a freeze on alcohol duty for consumers and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief.

They said the "Brexit Pubs Guarantee" meant there would "always be a lower duty rate for draught products".

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