Wealthy incomers 'kill off country pub'

The traditional village pub is being forced out of business by the arrival of second homers and wealthy commuters, according to campaigners.

Up to 650 rural pubs, often the focal point for long-standing rural communities, are expected to call last orders for the last time in the next year - 54 a month.

Four hundred villages shops which provide food and a range of other services are also set to close, adding to the 1,200 country shops which have shut in the past two years.

The National Housing Federation, which produced the figures with the help of the British Beer and Pub Association and the Rural Shops Alliance, warned that the closures threatened to destroy the historic character of villages and turn them into “holiday zones.”

It complained that local families, the core users of local services, had been “priced out by an influx of wealthy commuters and second home owners”, adding that a shortage of affordable homes had also made it difficult for pubs and shops to find local workers.

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, urged councils to draw up social housing action plans. “If the local pub and shop disappear from a village, it rips the heart out of community life,” he said.

“Many villages are now in real danger of losing their unique identity. They are becoming holiday zones preserved for tourists and second home owners, which close down for business in the winter. Affordable housing lies at the centre of the battle to save traditional village life.”

The closure of local pubs and shops has long been a bugbear of rural campaigners.

The BBPA spokesman Mark Hastings said village pubs were “at the heart of village life” and called for Government to support pubs, which have been hit by rises in alcohol duty.

“A rural village that loses its shop or its pub becomes a diminished place as a result,” said Ken Parsons, chief executive of the Rural Shops Alliance.

“The community becomes more fragmented once its central focus has disappeared.

“This year hundreds of communities are finding out the hard way what this means for them. Village pubs are closing at an unprecedented rate, whilst the number of shop closures is also running at a very high level.”

Rural house prices tend to be well above the national average while rural incomes are well below the national average – and the affordability gap has widened in the last five years. Some 750,000 people are on rural housing lists.

The Local Government Association said that councils wanted to build more social housing but were prevented from borrowing money to do so by central Government rules.

“I don’t think anybody would disagree that in some parts of the country there is a shortage of affordable housing,” said the LGA.

“Councils often do have action plans about social hosuing but the plans aren’t necessarily the answer if local authorities do not have the resources to provide more affordable housing.”