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Numbers from across the country show pubs are closing at an accelerating rate of 31 per week

and the Labour politician believes a fundamental change is needed.

 

The total amount of pubs in the UK has dropped from 67,800 in 1982 to a record-low 48,006 in

2013 and keeps declining. Qureshi, who has seen a number of pubs disappear from his own

neighbourhood of Marylebone, believes overpopulation of central London is partly to blame.

 

“I think the reality is, unfortunately, very often the residential values of these pubs, if they were converted, are much higher than as a business concern”, Qureshi said. “This seems to be a coherent pattern, pubs being turned into a number of flats.”

 

The Lost Pubs Project, a website dedicated to archive the decline of English pubs, lists a total of 3,456 pubs shut down in London and more than 27,500 lost nationwide. “I’m very sorry to see that”, said Qureshi, “pubs are a very important part in the fabric of London, many Londoners have grown up using them as points of socialising and getting together in their neighbourhood, which is invaluable.”

 

This isn’t the first time London Assembly raises this concern. A motion from 5 March 2014, called on the Mayor to revise his London Plan to provide better guidance for local authorities to promote and protect pubs as public houses.

 

Both duty and VAT fees have almost doubled over the last decade, pressuring the tax price per pint from 58p in 2002 to 99p in 2014. Over the same time period, the average price of a pint has increased with £1,21 and now the race to get out of this vicious circle is on.

 

“I think the only encouraging sign in recent times has been the new breweries bill which allowed more pubs to become independent from the breweries that supply them” said Murad Qureshi, “That should actually help pub owners reduce the overall cost of running them.”