Mulholland urges Pubs Minister to safeguard pubs

Pro-pub MP Greg Mulholland has written to community pubs minister Bob Neill asking him to support six key policies to safeguard the future of pubs via planning law.

Mulholland, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, outlined the group's views on how planning law should be altered to help pubs following a debate on pubs and planning in Parliament last week.

Mulholland's recommendations include:

• Requiring planning permission for a new development at a pub before, rather than after, demolition has taken place. "It remains a national scandal that profitable and wanted pubs are being closed up and down the country, simply because the legal owner has decided they want to cash in," Mulholland said.

• Giving locally listed buildings protection from demolition or change of use without planning permission, along with clearer advice from the Government about what councils can and should do in terms of listing pubs.

• Requiring councils to adopt planning policies supporting the retention of pubs, including an independent viability test and community need assessment before change of use or demolition. A six-month moratorium on any permanent loss of a pub should also be necessary. Mulholland pointed to figures from the Campaign for Real Ale that show 40% of councils have no policy about assisting the retention of pubs.

• Strengthening the Community Right to Buy scheme to prevent a pub owner from unreasonably refusing a bid from the community.

• Clarifying the support on offer from the Government's Asset Transfer Unit, which is billed as a resource to help communities transform buildings to help local people.

• Banning restrictive covenants, which force change of use when pubs

are sold.