Working from home pours new lease of life into small town pubs
‘There is now a captive audience, as home workers escape the spare room and don’t have the commute’
THE idea of a local pub, in walking distance of your house with a landlord who knows your name, may feel like a luxury of times gone by.
But small town watering holes are being offered a reprieve thanks to entrepreneurs looking to capitalise on the rise in the number of people working from home.
Experts say that “with home working now the norm” people are increasingly going to spend more time in their local, according to a report. As a result, more businesses are looking to purchase pubs in small parishes and villages.
The rise is driven, the report suggests, by a lack of commuting time, combined with an influx of investors looking to spend money on improving neglected village pubs.
In the village of Fittleworth, in West Sussex, Angus Davies recently purchased the Swan Inn. The Sussex-born business owner hopes to renovate the historic two-storey building, which dates back to the 15th century, and provide locals with a pub closer to home.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, he said: “This pub is for the villagers. It is run by a local and we will be serving good quality, good value food.”
The pub has been closed for 18 months and Mr Davies said he hoped to open before the end of the year.
He added: “Some people work locally and some people commute into London. I think the Swan is the perfect pub for both groups to be honest. The parish council have been really supportive with us and they’ve been amazing with making sure that we’ve got everything we need.
“It is the only pub in the village and it is my local. I used to go there when I was younger.
“The reason it failed before was because no one put any money into it.
Hopefully it will be different this time.”
Mr Davies said that J M W Turner, John Constable and other artists used to visit the Grade II listed coaching inn, and in return for board and lodging they would give paintings to the pub.
The report from chartered surveyors Fleurets on the changing landscape of leisure properties found demand for local pubs had grown “exponentially”.
It said: “With home working now the norm as opposed to the exception and the consensus that a hybrid working model will become a permanent fixture, operators are seeking sites in neighbourhoods and smaller towns, where there is now a captive audience throughout the daytime and evening, as home workers escape the spare room and are in the locality earlier, minus the commute. Demand has grown exponentially in this area.”
The proportion of people hybrid working rose from 13 per cent in early February 2022 to 24 per cent in May, while around one in seven adults (14 per cent) worked from home exclusively during the same period.