17 September 2023 , 23:01
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Two pubs a day have been demolished or converted into homes and shops in the first half of the year, grim figures showed today.
The number of pubs being knocked down or switched to other uses surged by 50% in just three months. Government statistics reveal 230 pubs disappeared for good in the quarter to June 30 as soaring costs and pressure on family budgets hammered the industry.
The data, which was compiled by commercial real estate specialists Altus Group, showed a 50.3% jump after 153 pubs vanished in the first quarter of 2023. It means more than two pubs a day have vanished from local communities over the first half of the year.
The overall number of pubs in England and Wales, including those vacant and being offered to let, fell to 39,404 at the end of June 2023. Some 383 pubs were demolished or converted for other uses such as homes, offices or even day nurseries during the half-year, according to analysts.
Last week, regulars at the historic Big Gun in Sheffield drowned their sorrows as the pub shut after 227 years. The owner, a local businessman who bought the premises in 2021, plans to turn it into a pizza takeaway.
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Over the weekend, it emerged Arkell's brewery has applied for planning permission to transform the Duke of Edinburgh pub in Swindon, Wilts, into flats, after it shut last year. Property agents claim it has been impossible to find new tenants or pub buyers for the 150-year-old building.
Alex Probyn, president of property tax at Altus Group, called on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to use November’s Autumn Statement to ease business rates on the struggling industry. Currently, firms which pay business rates - the property tax affecting high street firms - will see an inflation-linked increase come next April.
Without fresh government intervention, it is set to add more than 6% to bills next year. Mr Probyn said: "With energy costs up 80% year-on-year in a low growth, high inflation and high interest rates environment, the last thing pubs need is an average business rates hike of £12,385 next year."
Pubs, as with other eligible hospitality, leisure and retail businesses, currently get a 75% discount off their business rates bills for the 2023/2024 tax year up to a cap of £110,000 per business. But this is set to end on March 31.
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Pubs.
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