The Community Pub Business Support Programme Opens to Applications

More than a Pub is making £2.2 million available to support community groups in England taking on the ownership of their local pub with the aim of running it to benefit their community.

Funded by Power to Change and administered by the Plunkett Foundation, the More than a Pub programme offers a flexible package of financial and business-development support to help communities to save their local pub through the purchase or long-term lease of the premises, and to grow the range of services they offer to help local people.

Support includes pre-feasibility bursary awards of up to £2,500 and a combined grant and loan package of up to £100,000 towards capital costs.

Applications will be considered from groups with the legal status of Community Benefit Society, Co-operative Society, Company Limited by Guarantee and Community Interest Company, provided that the group:

• Is incorporated or intends to incorporate.
• Is intending to take ownership of an existing pub, which has either recently been closed or has ceased trading and is for sale.
• Wants to open and run the pub as a community business, ie the business will be:
  • Locally rooted.
  • Accountable to the local community (ie democratically run with evidence of regular community input into decision making).
  • Trading for the benefit of the local community by either reinvesting surplus income in the business to run services that benefit local people or using it to support community events, training, etc.
  • Providing broad community impact by tackling specific community needs (eg reducing social isolation or increasing employment opportunities).
• Has a charitable purpose.
• Has local support and investors.

The loan and grant funding is to pay for capital costs only, such as the purchase of land, buildings, construction, and equipment.

The programme will be open for applications until all of the funding and support has been allocated. This is expected to be by September 2020

Full details…