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20
Sept
Campaigners call for law change to stop developers landbanking pubs
A community group set up to save the Henry Jenkins pub in Kirkby Malzeard is calling for a shake-up in planning laws to stop developers deliberately running down viable pubs so they can cash in on redevelopment as housing.
The Henry Jenkins Community Pub Ltd (HJCP), the resident-controlled company which has been battling for eight years to save the pub, has written to the new housing and communities minister Alex Norris calling for urgent action to close loopholes in the planning system that allow developers to ignore all purchase offers so they can get planning permission for conversion to housing.
...and how the Henry Jenkins looks now.
The Labour government announced plans for a new community right to buy in the King’s Speech in July, and in Mr Norris confirmed a “strong new right to buy” would be introduced for pubs and other community assets as part of the English Devolution Bill.
The letter to the minister, signed by Henry Jenkins group chair Richard Sadler, says:
This is very welcome – however, it is not clear whether it would address the scandal of speculative developers legally destroying viable pubs so they can cash in on the uplift in value as housing.
As the law stands, community groups can get pubs listed as Assets of Community Value and make purchase offers – but there’s nothing to stop developers refusing reasonable offers and just sitting on pubs until they get what they want.
The letter adds:
The problem of valued pubs being lost unnecessarily through this kind of asset-stripping could be easily solved if the law was tightened. It should be revised so that not only is there a community right to buy, but also – where there is a viable buyer – there should be an obligation placed on owners to sell at a price determined by an independent valuer.
The Henry Jenkins opened in the 1700s but closed in 2011 and was bought by current owner David Fielder the following year. At the instigation of local residents, it was first listed by Harrogate Borough Council as an asset of community value in 2017. However, in 2018 the listing on the eastern annexe was removed by the council, when it was sold to Mr Fielder’s business associate, Justin Claybourn.
Since then, the owners and campaigners have been unable to come to terms. Mr Fielder, who has rejected seven purchase offers from the HJCP group, told the Stray Ferret last September that he would be willing to sell the property for £250,000, but he has refused the group permission for a site survey, which they say is necessary to determine a fair price as the property has stood vacant for so long and the roof is falling in.
The new initiative is supported by Campaign for Pubs, which has launched a Manifesto for Pubs calling for stricter legislation to stop more pubs being lost to developers.
An aerial photo shows the overgrown garden and fallen-in roof
Campaign director Greg Mulholland, who was the Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West between 2005 and 2017, told the Stray Ferret:
The Henry Jenkins case shows so much of what’s wrong with planning legislation and how it doesn’t do enough to protect our pubs.
Here you’ve got an organisation that has led a brilliant campaign to save the Henry Jenkins, only to be stopped by the intransigence of the owner, who’s been behaving disgracefully.
In 2017 the Henry Jenkins was listed as an Asset of Community Value after evidence was submitted of 28 sporting, cultural and social groups who used to make use of the pub. An 18-month moratorium was triggered during which time the owner was not allowed to sell to anyone else but the community group.
But two fully-funded offers to buy the pub at a price set by an independent valuer were refused and it was delisted in 2018. More than £200,000 has been secured in pledges from local people to buy shares for its renovation and refurbishment as a community-owned pub, bistro and coffee shop. Last year a further £330,000 was approved from the government’s Community Ownership Fund. However, grant funding is now at risk because of the owner’s continued refusal to sell at a price that reflects its value as a pub.
Campaigners Richard Sadler and Greg Mulholland
Mr Mulholland added:
It is appalling that an owner can simply ignore a community’s bid and refuse to engage with them and simply landbank the site till he gets his own way.
Even worse, the community group risks losing their Community Ownership Fund Grant unless a sale is agreed, which considering the owner won’t agree to one, completely undermines the basis of this Government initiative.
We are losing viable and wanted pubs up and down the country, because uncaring owners and greedy developers close them to cash in for the development value, regardless of the impact on the community and local economy.
There needs to be a simple change to planning law so that no historic pub can be converted or demolished unless it has been openly marketed at the independently assessed value as a pub for at least a year. This would stamp out the cynical predatory purchasing in the first place and ensure that no pub is lost when there is a purchaser as a pub at the value as a pub.
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