The Campaign for Real Ale expresses ‘utter dismay’ over plans to close sites next to Premier Inns
The Campaign for Real Ale has challenged Whitbread to reconsider their decision to close and convert over 100 pubs next to Premier Inns. The pubs are now scheduled to be converted to restaurants for hotel residents or turned into additional hotel rooms.
Tom Stainer, CAMRA Chief Executive, has written to Whitbread asking the Board to reconsider their decision, highlighting inconsistencies between the company’s stated values and the actions that have been taken.
The letter outlines the Campaign’s ‘utter dismay’ upon hearing the news and highlights online statements that Whitbread has made about their ‘trusted brand’, ‘culture and values’ and commitment to ‘make a positive contribution to the communities’ that the brand’s outlets serve.
In the letter, Stainer says:
“I would ask that you carefully reflect on whether the actions that you have put in train align with your previous commitments, and your outlined values. I would argue that they do not.
“Closing a pub – which is a community amenity facility and gathering space – to the local community that it serves is not only contrary to the aims of your Environmental, Social and Governance strategy, it will also impact upon your ability to maintain that you are a ‘trusted brand’.”
CAMRA’s expert pub-saving campaigners are also concerned about how the conversions have taken place. Whitbread have been able to use a grey area in the current planning system in England that makes it easier to claim that pubs are in fact restaurants, which makes change of use more likely to be granted.
CAMRA’s National Planning Policy Adviser, Paul Ainsworth, said:
“Concerningly, it appears that most of these pubs have been closed to the public, under the argument that they are restaurants, and worryingly most local authorities have accepted that.
“We are now campaigning for a legal definition of a pub for planning purposes so that if you can buy a drink at the bar without purchasing a meal, the venue would be considered a pub.
“In the wake of scandals such as the scandalous Crooked House demolition, unacceptably high levels of unlawful conversions and demolitions, and now this, we need the new Government to act now to strengthen planning protections and enforcement options for local councils.”
Ends
Notes to editors:
Sources for the statements outlined are contained in the letter from Tom Stainer, CAMRA Chief Executive, which is reproduced in full below.
The ‘grey area’ referenced in the release concerns Class E uses in the planning system in England.
Use Class E of the Use Classes Order 1987 (as amended) came into force in 2020 and combines the previously separate commercial uses of shops, financial and professional businesses, restaurants and cafes, non-residential institutions, and assembly and leisure.
The amendments to the order include ‘Use or part use for the sale of food and drink principally to visiting members of the public where consumption of that food and drink is mostly undertaken on the premises’. Whitbread have argued that the venues adjacent to Premier Inns fall into this Use Class, rather than the Sui Generis Use Class of pubs.
Letter from Tom Stainer, CAMRA Chief Executive, to Dominic Paul, Whitbread Chief Executive:
RE: Whitbread plans to convert or sell pubs adjacent to Premier Inns
Dear Mr Paul,
I am writing to you on behalf of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, to express our utter dismay at the Whitbread board’s decision to close or convert over 100 of your pub sites adjacent to Premier Inns.
We are one of the UK’s most successful consumer groups, with around 145,000 members, campaigning in the interests of all pub goers and beer and cider drinkers.
I am writing to request that you urgently reconsider your plans, as they will result in further damage to the UK’s pub stock and have a negative impact on the local communities that they serve.
Our understanding is that most, if not all, of the affected licensed premises operated to all intents and purposes as pubs – customers could purchase just a drink, rather than being required to purchase food as well. Your own website describes the offers from your various brands as ‘pub food’.1
We were extremely concerned to learn of the mass closure of these pubs. Pubs are an asset to their local communicates, combatting loneliness and social isolation, fostering community cohesion, and injecting money into local communities. The pubs you have closed were popular destinations for local people and will be greatly missed by many of them.
As an owner of pubs, we are sure that you recognise the key role that pubs play in community life – often cited as the reason for the granting of business rate reliefs and alcohol duty cuts and freezes, which your company benefits from.
We also think it’s vital that pub owning businesses act in accordance with their stated values and commitments – both to their staff and to the wider communities that they serve.
The ‘About Us’ section of your website boasts of your ‘trusted brand’ and ‘culture and values’ being a force for good.2 Furthermore, your 2023/4 Environmental, Social and Governance Report outlines ‘Community’ as one of three core pillars of your ‘Force for Good’ strategy, pledging to ‘make a positive contribution to the communities that we serve’.3
I would ask that you carefully reflect on whether the actions that you have put in train align with your previous commitments, and your outlined values. I would argue that they do not.
Closing a pub – which is a community amenity facility and gathering space – to the local community that it serves is not only contrary to the aims of your Environmental, Social and Governance strategy, it will also impact upon your ability to maintain that you are a ‘trusted brand’.
We ask that the Whitbread board carefully consider the impact of these plans, and we urge you to reconsider these pub closures and conversions. It is not too late to retain trust in your brands within the local communities that you serve.
I look forward to receiving a response and would be more than happy to meet with you to discuss our concerns in more detail.
Your sincerely,
Tom Stainer
CAMRA Chief Executive
