Plans to allow communities to take over local pubs – as tried in Bradford – will be unveiled within weeks, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal.
The Government has already given councils the power to switch ownership of threatened community assets to local people but now Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe, in his role as Licensing Minister, will set out proposals to allow pubs to be community run.
Mr Sutcliffe said: “We are looking at saving community pubs through new planning support. By looking at community ownership, as has happened in Bradford before, often they are able to be kept open. The British pub is important to us all. Anyone saying you can save every pub is wrong. People’s drinking habits have changed and this has to be accepted.”
The comments come after the T&A revealed on Monday that six pubs across Bradford had been put up for sale for a combined £1.5 million after management company Deepclear went into administration.
Less than 24 hours later the future of ten further pubs became uncertain after the London Town pub group went into administration, a year after taking over the locals.
Along with the pubs currently under threat, latest figures show 52 pubs have closed across the district since 2005, of which 17 have closed since the smoking ban was introduced in the summer of 2007.
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