The Community Right to Buy Fund was announced yesterday (16 June) by Communities Secretary Steve Reed as part of a wider £301m package to support high streets and community spaces.
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The Government said the fund would help local people in deprived areas step in and take over community assets at risk of closure, including pubs, shops and community centres.
It forms part of the wider Pride in Place programme, which aims to give local communities more power over assets and services in their areas.
Reed said: “I am pushing power out of Whitehall and into the hands of the people who actually use these high streets. They know what they need better than any politician in Whitehall.
“We’re backing communities to step in and save these high street gems, building on our drive to give communities the key to their own future and power over what matters to them.”
Pub lifeline
CAMRA welcomed the announcement and said the new fund could provide a “game-changing” lifeline for community groups looking to take ownership of pubs at risk.
The campaign group has previously called for dedicated funding to help communities save local pubs, following the closure of the previous Community Ownership Fund in 2024.
Paul Ainsworth, CAMRA’s national planning policy adviser, said: “The number of community-owned pubs opening has noticeably slowed down over the last year.
“This is undoubtedly connected to the demise of the Community Ownership Fund which made it much harder for locals to raise cash to save their pub.
“Without suitable and accessible funding, many community groups were simply priced out of trying to save their local from oblivion.”
Ainsworth said CAMRA was awaiting the full details, but said the new funding looked set to be “a vital lifeline” for pubs under threat of closure or conversion.
He added: “Vibrant communities and flourishing local economies depend on pubs not only surviving but thriving.
Community ownership is a fantastic pathway to securing a pub at the heart of community life for decades to come, a pub run by the people, for the people.
CAMRA’s national planning policy adviser Paul Ainsworth
Community ownership
The announcement follows growing interest in community pub ownership, particularly in rural areas where commercial operators have continued to retreat from some sites.
BBPA figures showed 161 pubs closed in the first three months of 2026, equivalent to almost two pubs a day and more than 2,400 job losses.
The trade body said closures were up 26% compared with the same period last year, amid continued pressure from tax, business rates and wider operating costs.
Plunkett UK told The Morning Advertiser (MA) earlier this year that community-owned pubs were delivering long-term survival rates of around 99%, with more than 400 start-up community pub projects currently being supported by the charity.
The model has also been highlighted as a potential route to support youth employment, with community-owned hospitality businesses creating first jobs, training and volunteering opportunities in areas where traditional employment routes are limited.
Recent community pub campaigns have included The Bell in Curry Mallet, Somerset, where residents launched a Community Benefit Society to raise £260,000 to buy and reopen the 200-year-old village pub.
Other campaigns have used social media to raise awareness, including the Friends of the Elm Tree Inn in Langton Herring, Dorset, whose TikTok campaign attracted more than 1m views as residents sought to save the pub under community ownership.
The Government said further details on the Community Right to Buy Fund would follow as part of its wider community empowerment reforms.
