THE PHEASANT, NEENTON, SHROPSHIRE

With its only remaining community building – the village pub – left empty and falling into disrepair, the people of Neenton formed a community group and undertook a groundbreaking collaboration with local housing association Shropshire Housing Group. The result was a sensitive development of seven new homes on land beside The Pheasant: five were sold on the open market, with profits being reinvested into refurbishment of the community-owned pub, while two were retained as affordable shared-ownership properties. Housing stock in this conservation village has been increased by 15%, and the pub has just been named Alastair Sawday’s community pub of the year 2016/7 (pheasantatneenton.co.uk).