MP calls for six-month moratorium on threatened pubs

Communities should be given a six-month window to decide if they want to buy a threatened local pub, an MP has argued.

During a Westminster Hall debate today, Lib Dem Greg Mulholland said the current government "right to buy" proposals would have no "substantial effect".

A government consultation on what is now being called a community "right to challenge" was launched earlier this month - and ends on May 3.

Mulholland said: "It's not actually a community right to buy, it's a community right to try."

"It's a right to put a bid together. The question I have to ask is how many communities will try to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds if at the end of that period an owner can sell to Tesco for slightly more."

He added: "It will not stop profitable pubs being closed against the wishes of the community."

As part of a moratorium, councils should carry out an independent consultation and viability test, Mulholland said.

He also warned the current planning system offering "scant protection" from pubs being demolished and called for this "absurd loophole" to be closed.

The pub-supporting MP also suggested having a separate definition of a community pub, for venues that have a "proper community function". This could lead to community pubs having a different rateable value, he said.

He also attacked the idea of "free market" in the pub trade.

"There is no free market in the pub trade as around half of pubs are owned by the large pubcos…so entrepreneurs and small companies are not getting access to the market," he said.

Labour MP Chris Williamson, shadow minister for communities and local government, who admitted to being a teetotaller, raised concerns that there was no funding for the community right to buy scheme.

He said: "How will they (councils) be able to examine these plans if they haven't got any resources?"

He also attacked the coalition for scrapping the Labour government's £3.3m package to help pubs, announced just weeks before the last election.

Community Pubs minister Bob Neill branded the scrapped plan as "scant" and "pretty shoddy recompense".

He admitted he had come across "cynical behaviour where viable pubs are sold".

But he defended the community "right to buy" plan as a "potentially powerful tool".

Neill warned however that a moratorium on threatened pubs could create "injustice" and discourage people from investing in pubs.