10 Co-op Pubs in Top 50
The guide to the 50 Best UK Pubs, published in The Guardian on 27 October, devotes a whole section featuring 10 entries to community-owned pubs.
This demonstrates how far the movement for community-ownership of pubs has come in a relatively short time. Ten years ago there were only four community-owned pubs in the UK. Now there are over 70, and at least 200 communities are in the process of trying to buy their local.
Co-operative & Community Finance, working with Plunkett Foundation and other organisations, has helped this significant new trend in pub ownership by providing supportive loan finance. To date it has made 39 loans to community-owned pubs totaling almost £2m.