If you can keep your locals when all are losing theirs...

If you can be inclusive yet discerning, if you can see the smaller picture as well as the bigger one, if you can make your pub important to people — there might still be hope for us all, says Francis Patton

Before last year, we had already lost our way as an industry. Prior to the smoking ban, the consumer squeeze, the poor summer weather and all the other "perfect storm" contributors, we had allowed ourselves to be dragged into distracting fights over pricing, tax, on versus off, Government interference, red tape and smoking.

These issues are crucial and we need to fight them with vigour and energy, in order to free licensees to do what they do best.

But through these fights we lost the essence of what a pub is and what it means to society — how it adds to the wellbeing of its customers, its local community and society as a whole. And we lost touch with the very people who will help our trade succeed: licensees and bar staff.

What better time than now to revive the local? We live in a time when society is polarising and communities disintegrating, there is a rise in single-person households, new jobs are mostly part-time, off-sales/home consumption eclipses the on-trade, and there is a declining respect for institutions.

But what is a local? For me it provides a focal point in a neighbourhood for friendly interaction, entertainment, and social bonding over drink or food. It is, in essence, a community centre welcoming adults of all types and ages. Most importantly it is run by a benign authority figure, in accordance with an unwritten, yet clearly understood constitution, complete with its own customs, rituals and traditions.

I have a number of locals: one near my house; one where I work; one where I play sport; one near my parents; one near my best friend and one in Scotland where we go regularly on holiday. I am welcomed as a local whenever and wherever I visit, whether once a week or once a year.

Locals fulfil psychological needs. They are about helping people to raise their self-esteem, overcome loneliness, relieve stress, combat boredom and reduce anxiety. Pubs can even be fun.

What do people want from locals? Recognition and respect, a sense of belonging, the chance to relax and have a laugh, stimulation (something to do or watch), and finally, they want safety, security, fairness and comfort.

Our best licensees are social anthropologists. The field of social anthropology is defined as: "Investigating, often through long-term intensive field studies, the social organisation of a people, its customs, economic and political organisation, law and conflict resolution, patterns of consumption and exchange, kinship, family structure, gender relations, child-rearing and socialisation, religion" and so on.

It also explores the "meanings, ambiguities and contradictions of social life, patterns of sociality, violence and conflict and the underlying logics of social behaviour. Social anthropologists are trained in the interpretation of ritual and symbolic behaviour, examined in relation to action, practice and historical context. They address the diversity of positions and perspectives to be found in any social group."

A licensee does his field study in the pub. He knows his regulars, their customs, economic circumstances, politics and relationships, he resolves conflicts, and clearly understands patterns of consumption.

These on-trade anthropologists are vital. The role demands character, courage and charisma. Running a successful local is a challenging, all-consuming job. The licensee is an authority figure, chief cook, bottle washer, counsellor and arbitrator, an information service, an entertainer, a bookkeeper and a shoulder to cry on. In short, a nurturing "parent" presiding with a firm yet benign hand over the "family" that is the pub.

As that parent, he is responsible for staff and customer behaviour. He is "one of us" fitting in with customers, but also a natural leader, taking charge without fear or favour.

Give this licensee the chance to develop our pubs. In today's world, he's needed more than ever.

So the challenge for the whole industry is to allow licensees to restore the central role of the pub.

Initiatives such as Pub is the Hub are valiantly trying to do this, but need far more support and need integrating into the way we run pubs as an industry. Get this right and we can start to address the fundamental problem we have today — not pricing but social attitudes.

Get it wrong, carry on fighting and ignoring our own issues, and all I can see is further decline in pub numbers and beer volumes.