The Big Interview: John Longden

Highgrove was looking especially splendid that evening. Not, as it later turned out, for the inaugural dinner of the Prince of Wales’s Rural Action Group, but for the visit of pop star Madonna the night before. Still, as John Longden took his seat two places down from the Prince he was suitably awed.

“I was asked to speak, and not having prepared anything I remember saying something about the pub needing to be a hub of the community and provide services. The Prince said ‘Yes, pub is the hub’ and told me to make it work.

“I said I’d have a go — it was the kind of situation where you thought you might be beheaded if you said no.”

Ten years later, Longden has kept his head, and as director of Pub is the Hub he’s seen through around 350 projects to diversify pub businesses and put them at the heart of their communities.

His invitation to the Highgrove dinner that started it all was not chance. There were plenty of clues in his earlier career to suggest he was the right man for the job.

After a false start as a telephone engineer, he switched to surveying, “because I like buildings”. Too “useless at counting bricks” to be a quantity surveyor he turned to valuation, where his work in the early ’70s with the coaching inns division of the firm that became Trusthouse Forte got him interested in the peculiarities of valuing pubs. Much more than bricks and mortar, “it’s the licensee and the community around them that create the asset value”.

He got deeper into pubs when, after meeting chairman Humphrey Smith at a cocktail party, he got a job at Sam Smith’s. The eccentric Yorkshire brewer is not without its controversial foibles but Longden found it “a great training ground”.

He made his mark at Sam Smith’s London estate, adding purchases such as Holborn landmark and architectural curiosity the Cittie of Yorke.

From there he joined Grand Met, at Wilson’s Brewery in Manchester and Webster’s in Halifax. If you’ve ever wondered about the black cats sitting on the roofs of 150 Webster’s pubs, they were Longden’s initiative to “ward off evil spirits”.

But it was the practical good work he did on the company’s Community Services Board that would have the biggest repercussions.

Action man​

When Grand Met shut down Wilson’s Brewery, Longden wanted to help local people affected by the closure.

“I suggested the company create workshops and a training centre in its place to provide jobs.”

He persuaded Grand Met boss Allen Sheppard to back him and the scheme went ahead.

So when Business in the Community was looking for “a pub man” for the new Rural Action Group, they turned to Longden.

When he got the call he had just left Greenalls, where he had fulfilled his ambition of “getting property on the Board”, but became a victim of the regional brewer’s efforts to adjust to a changing industry.

“They were selling off bits of the company and when you do that there’s a pick-a-stick effect. You take something out and everything starts collapsing. It’s like a rural community in that way.”

So Longden set about putting communities back together through Pub is the Hub. He asked the British Beer & Pub Association to ask regional brewers to put forward likely pubs.

“Regional brewers understand their local communities, and straight away Simon Loftus, who was chairman of Adnams, suggested the White Hart at Blythburgh in Suffolk and that became our first project.”

The shop and post office at the White Hart demonstrated that the idea worked, and Pub is the Hub was off the ground.

Busy times​

Longden now works six or seven days a week for the scheme, based partly in Harrogate, Yorkshire, and partly in the London office of surveyor Gerald Eve, where he retains a consultancy role.

Seven Regional Advisory Hubs have been established, staffed by a total of 107 volunteers, and last year a Big Lottery grant enabled Pub is the Hub to launch a Community Services Champions Programme. It’s a more systemic approach that involves working closely with local authorities and the Third Sector to assess the needs of communities and decide how pubs can best deliver services.

So far in Essex, 12 projects are providing village shops and cash-points and another 15 are under assessment. Six projects are running in Suffolk and four in North Yorkshire. A scheme has started in South Norfolk and Cornwall will follow in January.

Former Jennings Brewery managing director Mike Clayton is also helping 20 communities run their local pubs, and is talking to 40 more about the possibility.

Progress​

And a national strategy for Wales is being launched, following a heavy hint from the Prince, who you get a feeling is always looking over Longden’s shoulder, casually sharpening his axe.

Longden would like to see this kind of strategic approach developed further, but despite the progress that’s been made it’s a long slog.

“Our biggest problem is funding,” he says. “We exist on £150,000 a year. John Healey, Labour’s pubs minister, promised us £330,000, which never materialised — but people remember that and think Pub is the Hub is all right for cash.”

In fact, while many assume it can fund projects, it can only offer advice and help with the paperwork, giving the publicans themselves the confidence to do it.

“The licensee is the hero. They’ve got to make it work, and there are licensees doing marvellous things in their communities,” says Longden.

“They’ve found that if they support the community, the community will support them.

“The extra services have to be seen as over-and-above running the pub. There’s no profit in it and it’s not a business plan you’d take to a bank, but it brings returns. You’ve got to be brave. If you go for the social returns, the financial returns will follow.

“We’ve shown now what Pub is the Hub can do, and it’s all good news for the pub industry,” he goes on. “The cost is not excessive — from £4,000 to £40,000 per project. But it needs a building and a person to run it — a champion.”

The social value of a pub is becoming better understood, and with local authorities making cuts to services, Pub is the Hub could well be coming into its own now.

“Many Third Sector people are interested in the role pubs can play in the community,” says Longden.

“There’s a major opportunity there. But funding and support is desperately needed. If we funded schemes ourselves we would need £2m to £3m a year.”

One thing Longden is clear about, though, is that Pub is the Hub is not there to stop pubs closing.

“We’ll always have pub closures — but there are always new openings, too, and we should be proud of that. Let’s recognise that it’s all part of a changing and dynamic industry.

“What we have to do, though, is get better at persuading those pubs that are opening to include facilities for the local community.

My kind of pub​

“My kind of pub is where the interior matches the promise of the exterior and you get a warm greeting at the bar. I like good simple food, great beer and a quirky environment — not a stereotyped pub.

“I couldn’t possibly pick a favourite out of our Pub is the Hub projects, but one of the latest developments, at the Cholmeley Arms at Burton Coggles in Lincolnshire, sums up what we are trying to do.

“The Cholmeley was closed for two years before the current licensees, John and Lesley Berry, took it over. We helped them open a village shop and butcher’s. Now it supports 10 local suppliers and has created 10 part-time jobs.

“It’s a brilliant example of just how dynamic our industry is.”

Key dates​

1961​
John Longden is apprenticed to Post Office Telephones

1965​
Takes degree in surveying
1969​
Begins career in the property departments of various companies
1971​
Works for Trust House Forte’s coaching inns division

1980​
Joins Sam Smith’s Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire
1982​
Becomes property and trading director for Wilson’s & Webster’s breweries, in Manchester and Halifax, and gets involved in Grand Metropolitan’s Community Services
1989​
Joins Bass as head of property, going on to be deputy chair of Bass Developments
1994​
Moves back north to Greenalls Group as main board director
2000​
Invited to join Business in the Community’s Rural Action Group
2001​
Becomes a partner at surveyor Gerald Eve. Sets up Pub is the Hub
2005​
Regional Advisory Hubs, run by volunteers, established across the country
2010​
Local Community Services Champions programme launched
2011​
Wales Co-operation Project agreed