29 Market Street, Tamworth, B79 7LR
Albion Road, Marden, TN12 9DT
Riviera Centre, Torquay
11-13 April 2025
23 Haltwhistle Road, South Woodham Ferrers, CM3 5ZA
Unit 11, Valley Point Industrial Estate, Beddington Farm Road, Beddington, CR0 4WP
Argyle Place, Love Road, Lowestoft, NR32 2NZ
116, Foregate Street, Chester, Chester, CH1 2HH
The previous Government’s proposal to introduce High Street Rental Auctions will now go ahead from 2 December 2024. Their intention is to tackle long term empty premises on high streets across England and bring businesses back into action – including pubs – by auctioning leases for vacant high street premises through local authorities.
High Street Rental Auctions will see Local Authorities auction 1–5-year leases for long term vacant high street premises to businesses and community groups in their area.
During the early proposals of the High Street Rental Auctions scheme, CAMRA identified a potential planning loophole which could have led to the loss of countless urban pubs. Due to our campaigning, we won additional requirements that local authorities must adhere to when auctioning leases through the High Street Rental Auction scheme which will help protect pubs from unwanted redevelopment.
We hope this scheme will create an opportunity to revitalise more pubs on our high streets, and the scheme might help community groups get a shot at running their local. However, there is also a chance that we might see pubs lost, or having their fixtures and fittings ripped out unnecessarily.
This is why our branch campaigners will be contacting their local councils to ask them to keep pubs as pubs when leasing vacant premises through the High Street Rental Auctions scheme. We will continue to monitor the High Street Rental Auction scheme to ensure that pubs are not at risk of being lost forever.
The good news is that just one small change to these plans could instead support high street pubs, and high streets along with them.
Campaigning to see vacant pubs brought back into use is one of CAMRA’s core objectives and the proposals for High Street Rental Auctions recommend a focus on community uses when awarding leases. This has the potential to be a really positive step for urban pubs, as long as they don’t lose planning protection under the scheme. We know that pubs can increase and expand footfall on the high street, but we need Government to understand this too.
CAMRA National Chairman, Nik Antona has already written to the Minister responsible, and asked her to think again about giving developers the ability to convert pubs without giving local people the chance to have their say. We’ve made formal submissions to the Government’s consultation – both as a national organisation and via CAMRA’s network of branch campaigners – questions have been asked in Parliament, and thousands of emails have already been sent to MPs.
The Government has now closed their consultation on High Street Rental Auctions, but we still need to keep the pressure on. You can take action by emailing your MP and making sure that these plans are used to support and rejuvenate urban pubs, not turn valued community venues over to the highest bidder.
Use the links to see our press release about High Street Rental Auctions and the letter sent by our National Chairman to the Levelling Up Minister.
CAMRA members can also head to our Campagins Hub for more information and campaigning resources.
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