Morning Advertiser reports that protecting pubs through changes to planning law is “not deliverable”, community pubs minister Bob Neill has warned campaigners.
However, he has promised to look at a “mixture” of ways to improve protection of pubs and boost the chances of communities taking over assets where they are both viable and valued.
The All-Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, in conjunction with the Campaign for Real Ale, had issued Neill with a Charter for Protecting Pubs in England.
The charter calls for an end to the “scandal” of closing profitable pubs against the wishes of the community. It wants changes to the planning system to ensure pubs can’t be demolished or undergo change of use without planning permission.
It also wants to ensure a guarantee that a pub will not be lost where there is a viable bid to buy it and to continue running it as a pub.
Neill warned the Save the Pub Group that he could not deliver protection for every single pub.
“I don’t think it is deliverable — and certainly not through the planning system, as it deals with the regulation of land use. If you are regulating a certain type of business use, that is not deliverable.”
He added: “You can’t use the planning system to alter the shape of the market.”
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