Our Vision and Values [MeshCMS]

Our Vision and Values

Background

Pub is the Hub advises and helps rural pubs, owners, licensees and communities to make a positive impact in responding to and supporting the needs of their local communities by using pubs for the co-location of necessary services and articulating their specialist local needs.

Pub is the Hub was initiated by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales as President of Business in the Community to encourage pub owners, licensees and local communities to work together to help support, retain and improve access to their essential local services and often improve the viability of rural pubs themselves.

Pub is the Hub is an ‘Independent Advisory Trust’ assisted through the affiliation and support of the rural action team of Business in the Community, together with the Post Office, the pub and drinks industries and other development agencies, county councils surveyors and suppliers interested in using pub and other rural properties for the support and access to social enterprise services.

The main driver of Pub is the Hub has been to get everyone to work together as a collective partnership, regardless of their background and also seek to use other properties (as well as a pub) as “hubs”, particularly if the local pub may already have closed and use the combined industry experience to advise on strategic initiatives.

As well as looking for innovative ways to ensure rural pubs remain relevant to the needs of their local communities, in some instances village communities acting as co-operatives have bought their own local pub to ensure it is retained as a centre of services for their local area.

It is against this background, of nearly 350 projects completed in the past six years, that the launch of a National Steering Panel and Regional Advisory Groups was recommended.

Pub is the Hub by itself is not a pub preservation group (this is left to CAMRA’s Community Pubs Foundation) but it seeks to encourage social enterprise and diversification for pubs where these particularly can deliver commercial viability in supporting many rural services, which are either under threat or may have recently ceased trading. Involvement with the community and planners needs to be handled in a sensitive and confidential manner and any potential conflicts should be assessed and discussed with Pub is the Hub.

Summary of Activities

Creation of a National Steering Panel and Regional Advisory Groups (East Midlands, North West/Cumbria, Yorkshire/North East, South West, South East, Wales and shortly East Anglia.
Supporting sustainable rural services and supplies for licensees and their local communities.
Encouraging and advising at local levels to make projects happen with local involvement by the community.
Simplify the range of contacts and improve the current range of revenue funding support available to be able to launch other Regional Advisory Groups. Pub is the Hub does not currently have capital grants for projects itself but seeks to leverage these locally.
Share project knowledge, innovative ideas and experience nationally, with research and evaluation of data to improve awareness of the benefits of projects to the local community and pub premises.
Work in partnership with licensees, pub owners, suppliers of services, regional development agencies and other government and local authority bodies to make individual projects sustainable, support local sourcing and help with environmental impact.
Benefit from the national experience of the projects completed and support circa 60 enquiries per month for advice (via website www.pubisthehub.org.uk) .
Encourage the strategic use of pub property with the leisure and drinks industry to support other rural related projects e.g., recognising local sourcing, plough to plate, and affordable rural housing.
Ensure there is a code of conduct for how the future of rural pubs is dealt with by the industry and owners.
Maintain an effective web site to ease communication and availability of information for all interested parties.

Ethics

Our prime task is to provide business and technical advice and inform interested parties on the way in which they could consider a Pub is the Hub related project. It is our duty to guide them through the available options.

Independence

As well as project and business advice the role of Pub is the Hub is to influence national policy and practice in pub related and public sectors. It should respond to current local and national needs, developing flexible and innovative business approaches.

We recognise that there are great benefits to licensees, free traders, communities, pub and brewery groups and rural suppliers with local and regional agencies, all of which need to be carefully balanced with the ability of individuals or groups to tailor their own interpretation of Pub is the Hub schemes to suit their local interests or style of operation.

Our independence and sense of purpose enables a better understanding and response to the local needs of rural users and only promoting these services and projects where it is truly believed they can bring some clear added value benefits to the local community and the property.

Community Participation

The current government objective is to local community empowerment and supporting the needs of community participation.

Pub is the Hub provides voluntary professional advice and business experience to people of the necessary contacts and tools with which to work. This enables them to collectively make their own decisions as to whether they wish to support their own pub project. It does not, at present, have readily available capital funds for all projects but is working in partnership with individual regional funders to see if these can be obtained

National Steering Panel

The National Steering Panel comprises of sponsor members as well as certain co-opted bodies where these are unable to provide limited financial support but their political or technical experience is still considered to be worthwhile e.g., All Parliamentary Beer Club

Regional Advisory Groups

These have been formed from the supporter organisations, business volunteers and local agency/authorities. The key role is to provide local/regional advice on identified Pub is the Hub type projects in rural areas, which can provide sustainable benefit to their communities.

Requests for advice tend to come from four areas e.g.

Licensees (Free trade or tenancy)
Pub/Brewery Groups
Local Communities/Individuals
Local Agency/Authorities

Usually they fall into four main requests e.g.

How to carry out a scheme and finance
How a community could acquire their local pub, if it has potential to provide other services.
How to object to a closure or planning application for change of use.
General interest/media, TV, radio and research.

Regional Advisory Groups currently exist in the Midlands, North West/Cumbria, Yorkshire/North East, South East, South West and Wales Subject to future funding being available, it is hoped to be able to form further Regional Advisory Groups eg East Anglia.

As Pub is the Hub is about diversification and whilst booklets are available on “Saving your Local Pub” and “ Public House Viability Test”, we do not get involved in preservation or planning issues alone leaving this to the existing role of CAMRA’s Community Pubs Foundation, www.communitypubs.org.uk. Where we share experience.

Disclaimer for Pub is the Hub

"Any material or comments are intended to provide general information only. The information contained or any views expressed do not constitute legal or professional advice and should not be relied upon as such. You should consult your own legal or professional advisors for appropriate advice based upon the particular facts of your case or matter and you should not take or refrain from any action based upon the information contained in documents, letters or the website.

Whilst Pub is the Hub endeavours to ensure that all information is up to date, it may not always reflect the most current developments.

Your use of documents and the website is at your own risk and Pub is the Hub shall not be liable for any losses arising from your reliance on any information contained on it, your use of it, or for any typographical or other errors or omissions within the material contained on it".