01-Jul-2010
Gerald Eve Engage Magazine - The Pub is the Hub
ENGAGE looks at a Gerald Eve supported initiative of HRH The Prince of Wales which is starting to make a real difference to rural communities
The romantic idyll of English country life, so beloved of Victorian novelists and the
producers of “The Archers”, in which bucolic yokels and tweed clad gentry coexist in peaceful harmony in a self-contained village of thatched cottages nestled around the village pond, with an ancient church of honey coloured stone, a cosy pub, the post office and the cobwebbed village hall – is a myth.
Although, in the closing years of the last century, much was written in the national
media about the decline in rural services and an almost equal amount of coverage was given to the demise of the village pub, yet still the decline continued. What townies and central Government didn’t seem to realise was the fragile nature of the rural services structure for, when a business failed in the High Street, it usually created an opportunity for another business to thrive. But, by contrast, the loss of one business in a village impacted adversely on the viability of the others leading to a domino-line
collapse of local services and amenities.
But whilst there was much hand wringing no one seemed to have an answer that did anything other than put a small sticking plaster over a gaping and deepening wound.
To give an idea of the scale of the problem, by 2001 more than 70% of villages in Great Britain had no access to a shop, Post Office or alternative service and nearly 70% of villages no longer had a pub; in 2009 a total of 2,365 pubs, both rural and urban, closed and the rate of closure is currently running at 39 a week, albeit that this is down on the 2009 closure rate of 52 pubs a week. It took a Prince to propose a practical solution and a surveyor to implement that vision.
Step forward HRH The Prince of Wales and former Gerald Eve partner John Longden. In 2001, The Prince of Wales, champion of the protection of all aspects of Britain’s heritage and vocal supporter of organic farming, in his role as President of Business in the Community initiated “Pub is the Hub” as a practical way of not just halting the decline in all aspects of rural amenities and services but of restoring them. The Prince’s objective was to encourage rural pub owners, licensees and their local communities to work together. The aim of this cooperation being to support and retain local services, such as Post Offices or village shops, thereby improving the
viability of all the businesses involved which, wherever possible, would be
located within the pub itself. The concept could be summarised as: “club together
in the pub and everyone wins”.
However, having a vision or launching an initiative is one thing; making it happen is quite another. Fortunately for all concerned, in 2001 John Longden had recently joined the Prince’s Rural Action Group and, coincidentally, had also been invited to join Gerald Eve as a partner. This quietly spoken Yorkshireman might, at first sight, be an unlikely royal appointee, but John was very well qualified for his role on the Rural Action Group and almost uniquely skilled to take on “Pub is the Hub”.
For John has spent most of his life as a surveyor working in the pubs and hotels
sector. In the 1980s he was Grand Metropolitan’s tied house director in the
north of England and Scotland, with a portfolio of 2,300 pubs. In 1989 he was
hired by brewery and pub giant Bass to manage their pub estate, just at the time
that brewers were being obliged to shed their tied houses. This was followed by
an appointment to the main board of Greenalls as group property director for
the leisure group that had lately sold off its brewing assets whilst retaining
its pubs and hotels. And from there, in 2001, to Gerald Eve’s pubs and leisure
team – and the Rural Action Group.
If the Prince’s concept was clear, John’s implementation of it has been and continues to be very effective.
Working with the slenderest of resources and minimal office support, from a
standing start in 2001 “Pub is the Hub” now has more than 300 projects in hand including over 100 Post Offices, 80 shops and 30 rural computer training centres. This has been achieved with an annual cash budget of £150,000, made up of donations from the Post Office, Marstons, Diageo, The Campaign for Real Ale, The British Beer and Pub Association, Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns and a similar amount of “support in kind” provided by businesses such as Gerald Eve and the Great Yorkshire Showground, where “Pub is the Hub” has its modest office.
In the early days, John quickly realised that, to succeed, his first job had to be to win the trust of the pub groups and to ensure that the initiative was not seenas a Canute-like attempt just to save the pub, particularly as there were many
pubs that had long since outgrown their usefulness and deserved to fail. The task was to get pub groups to realise that the opportunity existed to create a virtuous
circle. If the pub operator was willing to take a broad approach to the needs of
the local community, by using the pub as a hub, the local community would
in turn support the pub and keep it relevant for that community. And that is
exactly what is now happening where "Pub is the Hub” has taken root.
So how does it all work?
John Longden describes the methodology in straightforward terms: “First we identify the existing rural services in a county or region, and that can include everything from a Post Office service to access to the internet or IT. “Then we overlay the rural pubs in the selected area. We then sit down with the relevant local authority and/or the appropriate Regional Development Agency and we identify local priorities – then we ask the question, can any of the pubs provide those services?If the answer is yes, the next step is to engage with the pubs’ owners andoperators and discuss with them the business and community benefits that will result.”
“Pub is the Hub” sums up these benefits quite succinctly in its promotional leaflet
This states that its projects:
• help to maintain the sense of community which is essential in rural areas;
• help the pub to remain sustainable by offering new community oriented services, encourage cooperation and mutual benefit which is an invaluable instrument of community regeneration;
• and, by reducing vehicle travel and food miles, bring services to people locally in an environmentally responsible way which benefits the wider rural economy by supporting local producers and suppliers.
The truth of these assertions is clearly evidenced by “Pub is the Hub” success to date. Building on this success, the not for profit organisation now plans to extend its coverage, which John Longden admits has – of necessity – been patchy, across Britain with the creation of further regional advisory groups, starting with one in Wales.
The key to this expansion is, not surprisingly, funding. The good news is that “Pub is the Hub” has just received a shot in the arm from the National Lottery. It is going to receive a grant of more than £470,000 over three years to establish and run a Community Champion training programme for local people and licencees to become actively involved as volunteers in their communities. So whilst this welcome news should merit a story line in “The Archers” perhaps the last word should be leftwith The Prince of Wales:
“I launched the ‘Pub is the Hub’ initiative in 2001, but if someone had told me
then that we would have over 300 projects in the ‘Pub is the Hub’ family
I would never have believed them.”
In the News
21-Aug-2010
EDP 24 - Award-winning pub opens real ale shop
The owners of an historic pub have signalled the return of a village shop to a south Norfolk community after opening a real ale shop in a former tap room
Read More
12-Aug-2010
BBC North East Wales - Villagers who run Llanarmon's Raven Inn take over the post office
Villagers are celebrating their first anniversary running the community pub - by taking over the post office.
Read More
09-Aug-2010
Morning Advertiser - £4.3m community pubs fund axed
The Government has ditched its £3.3m support package for community pubs and a further £1m grant for the Pub is the Hub scheme as part of its cost-cutting programme.
Read More