Yorkshire communities urged to protect local pubs as review shows almost 1,000 pubs vanished in Britain last year

A total of 914 pubs disappeared in 2018, according to real estate data company Altus Group's annual review.

Around 76 pubs were lost each month during the year, although this represents a slowdown in decline from 2017.

The total number of pubs in England and Wales liable for business rates was 41,536 on January 1 2019, representing a fall of 1,530 since a controversial revaluation came into force in April 2017.

Nick Love, pub protection officer for York Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), said 21 pubs have closed in the county since the beginning of 2019.

Mr Love is encouraging communities to list pubs with their local council as an Asset of Community Value in a bid to protect them.

He said more than 2,200 pubs in the UK, including more than 300 in Yorkshire, are listed as Assets of Community Value.

He said Camra is responsible for around 30 per cent of the successful listings.

Mr Love, said: “Camra across Yorkshire is helping local communities protect their local pubs by listing them as Assets of Community Value with their local council which gives the local community the right to bid for the pub if the owners put them on the market.

“British Pubs are a very important part of our national culture and identity. The best pubs are an egalitarian cross-section of society - barristers rub shoulders with brickies, students with seniors, musicians with market stall holders.

"There is that healthy mix of friends and strangers. They are invaluable community assets and according to an authoritative recent study by Professor Robin Dunbar at Oxford University help to combat loneliness and social isolation.”

“Pub closures hit communities hard, even more so in rural communities where they are the focal point of society. Some people who live on their own may not speak to another person for several days without a visit to the local pub.

"Pubs don’t just serve alcohol they act as meeting places for clubs and societies, they put on live entertainment and foster local talent, sell local produce and some even accommodate crèches in the morning before opening time.”

“Pubs are suffering from the plethora of prohibitive costs associated with operating a public house causing unprecedented business pressures at present – be it beer duty, rents, the pubs code, heavily discounted supermarket booze or business rates."

UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: "Pubs are being hit with a myriad of cost pressures at a time of unprecedented political uncertainty and unstable consumer confidence.

"Unless positive action is taken by the Government to address crippling costs, more pubs will be forced out of business."

Earlier this month, Camra warned that business rate increases are forcing publicans to lay off staff, increase prices and hold off investment.

A survey of 650 licensees by the pub campaign group found that three out of four believed the system was unfair to pubs.

Camra chief executive Tom Stainer said: "Since the last business rates revaluation in 2017, it has been clear that the system simply isn't working for publicans."

However, the rate at which pubs are vanishing, either through demolition or conversion for other uses such as homes or offices, eased significantly, according to the new data.

In the seven years prior to the change in business rates, the number of pubs in the UK dived from 54,674 to 43,066.

In 2017, 1,292 pubs disappeared from the high street - at a rate of more than 100 pubs each month.

Alex Probyn, president of expert services at Altus Group, said: "The increase in the thresholds at which businesses, such as pubs, pay business rates coupled with the pubs discount during the last two financial years has helped ease the decline.

"The new retail discount, which slashed rates bills by a third for high street firms with a rateable value less than £51,000 from April 1, will help independent licensees in small premises and hopefully will stem the decline even further."