Anna Dixon
Main Page: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)(3 days, 2 hours ago)
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Linsey Farnsworth (Amber Valley) (Lab)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) on being successful in the private Members’ Bill ballot. Having been fortunate enough to secure a place in the ballot myself in the last Session, I know what a privilege that is, but I also know quite how much work follows.
My private Member’s Bill concerned football. Between me and the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, we have managed to cover two of my husband Martin’s favourite things in life: football and pubs. However, two of my favourite things are Amber Valley and its history, so it gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to speak about it today. It is a fact that my political journey to this place started in the Hunters Arms in Kilburn, a village in my constituency, when I agreed to put myself forward to be Labour’s candidate in the general election. It is an honour to represent the people of Amber Valley and to have the opportunity to speak about our heritage today.
This Bill centres on the importance of heritage and protecting buildings and places that matter to communities. Whether it is because of the events that took place there, the people connected to them, their architecture or simply because they have stood at the heart of a community for generations, these places help to tell the story of who we are. In supporting the principle behind the Bill, I am conscious that heritage takes many forms. Historic pubs are one important element of our built heritage, but they sit alongside the castles, manor houses, theatres, cinemas, churches and industrial buildings that tell the story of our communities.
Amber Valley has no shortage of such places. We are fortunate to be home to Wingfield Manor, one of the most important surviving medieval manor houses in the country. It was built in the 1440s, and it is perhaps best known as one of the places where Mary, Queen of Scots, was held during her imprisonment. Today, the site remains closed to the public, despite enormous local interest in seeing it reopened. That is why I am proud to be working alongside Derbyshire Historic Building Trust, which has successfully secured funding for a feasibility study to explore the future of the site, with the ambition of ultimately acquiring Wingfield Manor and reopening this nationally significant heritage asset to the public. It is an exciting project, and one that I will continue to champion.
Likewise, in Somercotes, the magnificent Premier Electric Theatre remains one of the area’s most striking reminders of its cultural history. Built in 1912, it served generations as a theatre, cinema and community venue before falling into disrepair. Today, local residents and Somercotes parish council are working incredibly hard to secure its future. I have been pleased to support those efforts, and I hope to see the building restored as a multi-purpose community venue capable of hosting cinema screenings, theatre productions, live music, a wide range of community events, and maybe even a bar—who knows? It has enormous potential, and it could once again become a real asset for local people.
There is also the Hippodrome in Ripley. Opened in 1913, it remains one of the town’s most recognisable landmarks. It was originally a theatre, then a cinema, a bingo hall and, latterly, a bar and nightclub called Tonkers. While much of the building has been converted into flats, the historical frontage still stands. Many residents raise with me their concerns about its condition and their hopes for its future. I share those concerns and hope that in the years ahead, we can find a positive long-term future for this important part of Ripley’s heritage.
All those campaigns differ slightly in their details, but they share a common principle with the Bill before us today: communities should have a stronger voice in protecting the places that matter to them. That is why I am particularly supportive of measures that empower local people.
Historic pubs already benefit from a range of protections. Demolition or change of use requires planning permission. Listed pubs enjoy additional statutory protections, and local authorities have powers available to them through measures such as local heritage listings and building preservation notices where appropriate. Communities can also act to protect the places that matter to them through the assets of community value regime, which ensures that valued local institutions receive proper consideration before they are lost.
Many aspects of this Bill build upon that existing framework and the wider direction of travel established through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026. In particular, I welcome the Government’s introduction of the new right to buy. Communities know their local assets best, and it is only right that they are given a meaningful opportunity to step in where an important community asset may otherwise be lost.
Anna Dixon
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. I declare an interest with regard to the point I am about to make: I know the person who runs PatchWorks, which is an evaluation consultancy. PatchWorks did an evaluation report of a community-owned pub in Tollerton that was due to close in 2019 and be turned into flats. The report states that 84% of people said that since the pub had been taken into community ownership, it was a better place to live; 64% said it helped them to make and maintain local friendships; and in general, it created trade and brought jobs and development opportunities for young people. Does my hon. Friend agree with the findings of that evaluation, which show that there is a really good case for community ownership of our heritage pubs, saving them from being closed and keeping them at the heart of our villages?
Linsey Farnsworth
I absolutely agree. That example makes a powerful case for why it is so important to allow and equip our local communities to take community assets back into public use, so that they can celebrate them and enjoy them.
Taken together, the measures that I have mentioned recognise an important principle: local people should have a stronger voice in shaping the future of the buildings and institutions that matter most to them. However, the provisions relating to the community right to buy, including the extension of the moratorium period, have yet to come into force. On behalf of the residents of Amber Valley, I would welcome an update from the Minister on when the necessary regulations and guidance will be published. Community groups across Amber Valley are keen to understand how these powers will operate in practice and, crucially, how soon they can make use of them. That is why I welcome the intention behind the Bill.
While I support the objective of protecting historic pubs, I think there is a broader point worth making. The significance of a pub is not simply found in the age of its bricks and mortar; it is found in the memories made there, in the conversations held in the bar and in the communities built around it. After all, heritage is not just about buildings; it is about people. When people in Ambergate talk about the Hurt Arms, they are not simply talking about a Victorian inn; they are talking about a place that has formed part of community life for generations. Even its name tells a story, preserving the memory of the Hurt family, whose influence on the area stretches back centuries—although a lesser known story about the name of the pub involves a young me coming up with sillier and sillier names for the pub as we drove past on our way to Matlock Bath for a day out, with “The Sore Legs” being a favourite of mine back in the day.
When people in Riddings talk about the Moulders Arms, affectionately known as “The Thack”, they are not simply celebrating its grade II listed status or its distinction as Derbyshire’s only thatched pub; they are celebrating a pub whose very name preserves the memory of the skilled moulders employed at the nearby ironworks at Pye Bridge.
Lizzi Collinge (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Lab)
I thank the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) for raising the important issue of heritage pubs. I grew up in a small village in north Cumbria. We were lucky enough to have two pubs, both of which I worked in as a teenager—most memorably one Christmas day, when I was presented with a Mrs Santa Claus outfit to wear. As a teenager more interested in heavy metal, I was not very pleased. Those pubs were important community hubs. I feel lucky to be representing the constituency of Morecambe and Lunesdale, which has many more excellent pubs than I could possibly mention in one speech.
Before this debate, I went on Facebook to ask my constituents what their favourite heritage pub was. The comments section was absolutely inundated—it was fantastic to see the passion that my constituents have for their locals. Morecambe and Lunesdale has dozens of great public houses, many with beautiful heritage features or important heritage settings. The Old Hall Inn in my town of Heysham is apparently the oldest dwelling in the borough, having been built in 1598.
People can go from the Black Bull in Sedbergh to the Royal in Heysham, perhaps via a cheeky pint of Wainwright in the Albion at Arnside, looking across at the lakeland fells. They could even engage in a “west end wobble” in the heart of Morecambe, usually starting at the Exchange, possibly popping into the Constitutional Club and finding their way to the newly opened Prince Albert on Albert Road, which has a fantastic cellar that no one could guess existed from the outside.
We are spoilt for choice. I invite any hon. Member here to come on a little pub crawl with me. I maintain that I have the most beautiful constituency in the country. Any visitor to our pubs will get to see every corner of it.
Anna Dixon
On her many visits to her fantastic local pubs, has my hon. Friend enjoyed a pint of Yorkshire ale? The excellent Saltaire Blonde, brewed in my constituency and named after the fantastic world heritage site village of Saltaire, is distributed nationwide. Has it found its way into any of her local heritage pubs?
Lizzi Collinge
I have not tried that ale. I wonder whether those of us on the correct side of the Pennines would welcome a Yorkshire pint or not—but I am sure it is delicious. Pubs are vital community assets, whether in Yorkshire, Lancashire or Westmorland. British life often happens over a pint and maybe a bag of Scampi Fries or—even better—a packet of Lancashire crisps. My tenuous claim to fame is that Wainwright Beer is named after my great-great uncle Alfred Wainwright, who was a fell walker and writer. He did enjoy a pint at the end of a walk, although I have to say that his mother, who was a strict teetotaller, would be turning in her grave at the idea of her son having a beer named after him.
I have spoken before in this place about the need to have spaces in our community where people can drop by, see a mate, run into people they know or even make new friends. Much as I love the great coffee shops in my constituency like the Salty Bean, or maybe something a bit more traditional like Lewis’s, which has many heritage features, you cannot beat a swift half at the Dispensary at the end of a long week.
It is about not just community—I will come back to that—but conserving important architectural and cultural buildings. The Tivoli Bar in Morecambe, which was named after the Tivoli gardens in Copenhagen, closed a few years ago, but I remember the inside of it being stunning. The Tivoli and the Queen’s Hotel in Morecambe could be fantastic assets to our town and examples of heritage buildings being preserved and put to good use; instead, they lie neglected. The Tivoli is owned by Samuel Smith’s Brewery, and despite Morecambe BID and I trying to get it and other absent landlords to engage on how we get more buildings open and working again, unfortunately we did not get any engagement from the brewery when we wrote to it back in February.
Lizzi Collinge
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. His case reminds me of my visit to a block of flats in Arnside just a couple of weeks ago. The balconies have been deemed unsafe and the developer and property management company are both trying to charge residents a huge amount of money because they have not created a proper sinking fund. They are also dragging their feet on everyday maintenance and safety issues. There is more we could do, although we are bringing in great reforms to things like leasehold and other matters. The principle is that if someone is responsible for something, they should take responsibility and fix the mess they have made, so I support my hon. Friend’s point.
Communities can also take measures through the assets of community value scheme, which was introduced by the Government in 2011. Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the scheme is run in accordance with the legislation.
Rather than adding to the planning regime, it is more important to make sure that we support pubs to thrive through everyday policy. Ask any pub owner and they will talk about rising operating costs, particularly for energy, and changing alcohol consumption habits, which make it harder to make a profit. The Government are taking action on that.
I am a member of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, which often speaks about business energy costs. I would like to flag the importance of the clean power 2030 mission to the survival of pubs and other businesses. When we go into pubs, we want them to be nice and warm, which means that they have very high energy costs. The Government are doing important work to decouple the price of electricity from the price of gas, which is set internationally and is damaged by international events.
For pubs specifically, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 will ban the use of upwards-only rent review clauses in commercial tenancies. Those clauses have meant that rents can only ever stay the same or rise, regardless of market conditions. Pubs that are signed up to the pubs code already receive that protection, but the ban will extend it to heritage pubs, further increasing support for these important institutions.
I was pleased that the Government announced the 20% business rates discount for pubs, clubs and entertainment venues, which has helped to give them some breathing space. I would point out that there are other businesses very similar to pubs, like the Avanti restaurant I visited in Kirkby Lonsdale, whose owner kindly brought together a group of local businesspeople for me to speak with. They would like to see parity on that tax relief. I encourage pubs to check whether they are eligible for the £61 million community right to buy fund rolled out by the Government, which funds people in deprived areas to take over community assets—something my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon) talked about.
Rather than relying on planning protection, which can be slow, those measures give communities agency over a place and the opportunity to operate those assets successfully. There is also the Pub is The Hub programme, which helps pubs in rural areas like mine to diversify and is backed by £3 million of Government funding.
Community ownership and engagement are really important to the Government. They are strengthening them further through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, which will introduce a new community right to buy and give communities real power of ownership. Communities will have the first opportunity to purchase and 12 months to raise funding, which is a significant improvement.
Local communities should determine which spaces and places are most important to them. A growing number of local residents across the country are stepping into the gap and saving heritage assets. There are some brilliant groups like that in Morecambe and Lunesdale. I want to give a specific mention to the Save Our Sun campaign in Dent. Dent is a beautiful village nestled in the Yorkshire Dales national park—I have three planning authorities in my constituency, which is always fun. The Save Our Sun campaign has pulled the community together to save the Sun Inn, and I wish to put on record my thanks to the group. They have done a fantastic job, and I was pleased to hear recently that they have progressed a little further.
Anna Dixon
I am pleased that my hon. Friend is backing a campaign to save a pub in beautiful Dent. The Dales way links parts of my constituency with hers, and we sometimes forget that those heritage pubs are not only part of the local community, but also provide a fantastic resting place for visitors to our areas who enjoy walking in our beautiful countryside. One pub with a very long heritage tradition is Dick Hudsons in Bingley, which lies on the edge of a popular walking route. Does my hon. Friend agree that we want to save those pubs not only for local communities but for all those who come and visit our areas to enjoy them?
Lizzi Collinge
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and Dent is a prime example of a place where visitors come. My constituency has so many fantastic places for visitors, whether it is the front at Morecambe, which is getting Eden Project Morecambe, beautiful Arnside, which I mentioned earlier, Milnthorpe, Kirkby Lonsdale, the whole Lune valley, or the Yorkshire Dales national park. The businesses that serve our communities all year round also serve visitors. They are fantastic spokespeople for our area, and they also show the quality of our local produce, which is important.
I want to know that the provisions in the proposed statutory register would create some meaningful protection, and not add another layer of bureaucracy. I want pubs to be live assets—I spoke earlier about the fact that buildings will change over time. Our heritage and communities are not static things, and from an architectural and heritage point of view it is important that their character is not lost. If something is in its original state, but that original state is mouldering, that is not a good thing, and when preserving those features it is important that any upgrade or renovations are done sympathetically and are in keeping. I recently visited the Royal Oak in Burton in my constituency. It has done a fantastic renovation that is very sympathetic to the original building. I want us to keep our pubs open and running, to preserve those historical buildings for future generations, and to leave it possible for them to have new life when the owners so choose.
Anna Dixon
I totally agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of communities being able to take over important buildings of community value, including heritage pubs, which is what we are talking about today. In the centre of Bingley we have Bingley pool, the old swimming pool, which is really important to local people. The Friends of Bingley Pool want to take it over as a community asset, but they are getting little support from the Reform-led council. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need supportive local government to help to implement these policies?
Sarah Hall
Absolutely, and I am a big advocate for communities taking over things like leisure centres. In Warrington South, the community is taking over sports pitches as well, because they are better able to access the funding they need, and they know what the demands are in the area and are best placed to support and reinvest in those things. I encourage all local authorities to get behind this incredibly powerful provision.
As we have said, the Bill could represent a substantial change in the opportunities available to communities seeking to acquire their local pub. The purpose of the legislation should be to make it easier for residents to save a valued pub, not leave them navigating an unnecessarily complicated set of rules. For Warrington South, that means listening to residents, community groups, publicans and local businesses about what would genuinely help them.
Sarah Hall
I echo those comments. Our event has been supporting incredible charities in our town such as St Rocco’s hospice and the homelessness charity Room at the Inn, as well as many international charitable projects.
Anna Dixon
I wish to put on the record one of our fantastic local beer festivals. The Bradford beer festival run by CAMRA takes place in Saltaire town hall. One particularly noteworthy thing is that it links up with local heritage pubs around Saltaire so that they are part of the wider festival. The Bradford beer festival not only celebrates our fantastic locally brewed beers from Goose Eye Brewery and Bingley Brewery but makes sure that heritage pubs such as Fanny’s Ale House and the Beehive in Shipley benefit from the people coming for the festival.
Sarah Hall
Yes, that is a wonderful thing. It is also a great way for the local community to see what is on offer locally that they might not otherwise know about.
Our event is organised and hosted by rotary members and volunteers; there is no large paid workforce behind the scenes. Its success depends on people giving their time and energy to support their community. That is something worth celebrating.
Warrington rotary will soon mark its centenary, reflecting a century of service to the people of Warrington and beyond. Oktoberfest is a powerful example of that spirit of service in action. The festival illustrates that beer and hospitality are not simply about what is served across the counter; they are about volunteering, local identity, charitable fundraising, entertainment and friendship. It also demonstrates the connection between brewing and the wider community. A brewery supports suppliers, distributors, retailers and pubs. A pub provides a place where those relationships become part of everyday life, and events such as Oktoberfest bring people together and demonstrate how hospitality can support wider charitable and economic activity. The festival also highlights the important distinction that heritage needs to be sustained, not just celebrated. Its success depends on organisers, volunteers, sponsors, customers and a programme that people actually want to attend.
A historic pub faces the same basic reality. If we want pubs to remain part of our communities, we must consider how heritage protection fits alongside measures that help businesses trade successfully. The objective should be a living heritage: buildings that are cared for, businesses that can operate, and communities that continue to use and value their local spaces. All that matters because a pub’s survival can depend on the relationship between its rent, turnover and operating costs. If a business faces a period of weaker trading, an inflexible rent review mechanism can make an already difficult situation harder to manage.
Kevin Bonavia
I am very happy to agree with my hon. Friend. As I was just about to say, I represent the UK’s first post-war new town, but it is built around an old town, in which I live, that still has 10 pubs along its high street. That high street is part of the Great North Road from London to Edinburgh. It was the first overnight stop for coaches, and we still have examples of coaching inns, the Red Lion being the most famous. In the old town we also have the Mulberry Tree, which was once the White Lion. My hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray) talked about the Tolbooth Tavern on the Royal Mile having been a prison, among other things. The White Lion was also a prison, for Napoleonic prisoners of war 200 years ago. It became a vestry and a fire station, and it is now perhaps the liveliest pub down the high street on a Friday night.
Where I live, the pubs on our high street are thriving—as I said, we have 10—but across the new town, where the nearest pub should be 15 minutes’ walk away, some of those pubs have gone, such as the Twin Foxes. The oldest pub in the new town, in Bedwell, is now a block of flats, which is a salutary warning from many years ago that ensuring that pubs survive is really difficult.
Anna Dixon
My hon. Friend is celebrating his post-war new town. Saltaire in Shipley is one of the original model towns, built by the great factory owner Sir Titus Salt, who was also a philanthropist. He built many things in that village for the community—a church, a school, a library, high-quality homes and some almshouses—but one thing he did not put in the village was a pub. He was a religious man, and he decided that it was not a good thing for his workers to have access to a pub. As a consequence, the historic Victoria pub—now grade II listed—was built on the edge of Saltaire in 1875, but it had to be on the outskirts. Sadly, it is now a pubco and is seeking a tenant for its ongoing use, which shows some of the challenges for our pubs. I would—
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
Order. It is an intervention, not a speech.
Dr Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)
This has been a very interesting debate, which has been very long. Perhaps like many other hon. Members, I am beginning to feel the need for a beer.
First of all, I should like to thank the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) for bringing forward this very interesting debate. Members may notice that he is wearing a tie that is the same as mine—it is the tie for the APPG on beer. I would like to recommend that all Members present consider membership of the APPG, as I can see it is something in which we all have an interest. The APPG holds a marvellous dinner in the ballroom of the Institute of Civil Engineers once a year, which I have now been to twice. I should like to recommend it to all Members.
Anna Dixon
As a member of the APPG on beer, could my hon. Friend recommend his favourite beer?
Dr Prinsley
I will come to that in a moment. I certainly do have a favourite beer. [Interruption.] If you’ll allow me one moment—
Dr Prinsley
I apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker.
It is well known that Charles Dickens stayed at the Angel hotel in 1835, and it later featured in “The Pickwick Papers”. He returned regularly to give readings next door. Two centuries on, guests can still stay in the very same room associated with his visits. Of course, most hoteliers would simply settle for a good online review.
The Masons Arms occupies a building dating back to the early 16th century. In Stowmarket, the Royal William, a traditional backstreet pub that was granted its licence only in the 1960s, serves real ale by gravity. There are plenty of things I would like to see modernised, but certainly not that.
I come to my favourite pub, the Nutshell. [Hon. Members: “Aha!”] It is listed in the “Guinness Book of Records” as the smallest pub in the country, at just 15 feet long by 7 feet wide, complete with a mummified cat. In 1984, an extraordinary 102 people and a dog called Blob reportedly squeezed inside. Any of us who struggle to find a seat at Prime Minister’s questions should count their blessings.
Stowmarket once had a pub called the Hop Pole Tavern, which had a railway siding running all the way through it. I support travelling to the pub by train, but that was taking integrated transport rather too literally.
I have already read out one of the ditties about Bury St Edmunds’ pubs, so I shall not tell the House another one, although there are several.
Anna Dixon
I thank my hon. Friend for addressing the question posed by our hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) about his favourite pub, but I am still waiting in suspense to learn what his favourite beer is. Could he please put me out of my misery?
Dr Prinsley
I will come to that—[Laughter.] But I want to make a more serious point.
As we know, sadly, many pubs have disappeared. I understand that we lost something like 7,000 pubs during the 14 years of Conservative rule, and we continue to lose them. Anyone who walks around our towns or drives through the country can see closed-down pubs, but habits have changed and laws have changed. Some of these laws are exceptionally good ideas. For instance, the law about drink-driving is an excellent idea and has saved thousands of lives. I recall my father, who was a physician, telling me years ago that if people were caught drink-driving following an accident when he was young, the fact that they were drunk was regarded as an excuse. Times have moved on considerably.
Dr Prinsley
I simply think that the smoking ban is an utterly brilliant thing to do. I cannot predict what will happen to pubs as a result of it, but it has not been good for country pubs.
Before I conclude, I want to make one remark about the issue of supermarkets and the cost of beer in convenience stores. In the convenience store at the bottom of my street, it is less expensive to buy a slab of lager than to buy a slab of Coca-Cola. Something has gone seriously wrong with the pricing arrangements for beer. I see that Greene King has now discontinued its off-licence production and will now only sell beer in pubs. I would like very much to see something done within our tax system to make it much less attractive to buy alcohol in convenience stores and supermarkets.
Anna Dixon
I wonder whether my hon. Friend is aware of the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates’ campaign “Drop the Tap Tax”, which seeks to lower the alcohol duty on beer sold in pubs specifically via hand-pulls and keg taps. Would that be something that he would like to discuss with the Chancellor over a pint of Greene King, which is perhaps his favourite beer?
Dr Prinsley
I would very much like to speak to the Chancellor over a pint of beer about quite a number of things; perhaps that is something that I could request.
I simply cannot go on with this speech forever, but let me say that I welcome many aspects of the Bill. Its ambition to identify and protect heritage pubs is welcome, but a simple register will not pay the electricity bill. Protection must go hand in hand with helping pubs to adapt, remain accessible and, crucially, stay commercially viable. I want the next generation to know our pubs not only from old photographs, but from Sunday lunches, quiz nights and conversations with neighbours. They must not be left as empty buildings. We must keep them alive. Let us protect their history and give all our locals a future worth drinking to.
Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)
I am delighted to speak in this debate, and I thank the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) for bringing the Bill forward. I do not think any of us in the House would question his motivation. We heard the passion with which he spoke of the terrible destruction that befell the Crooked House pub in his constituency; I think many of us remember hearing about it in the news and the events that followed.
As we have heard in so many fantastic contributions from Members across the House, we all share the desire not only to preserve the heritage pubs that have been at the heart of our villages and communities for centuries but to ensure they continue to thrive for decades or, we hope, centuries to come. As we have heard, these pubs are so much more than small businesses. They are community institutions. They are places where memories are formed. They are places where history is made. My hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray) is claiming one of the pubs in his constituency as the birth of the enlightenment. It is very tricky for me to match that, although we do have very interesting and historic pubs across Shipley.
Pubs are meeting places and places of history. For me, pubs are where I gather with my family—my mum and dad, my brother, sisters, nieces and nephews—on family occasions, around a large table, often enjoying a Sunday roast with large portions of Yorkshire pudding, washed down with one of my favourite locally-brewed pints. It is difficult to mention what my favourite beer is, unlike my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Dr Prinsley)—I am assuming that his favourite beer is Greene King, because he mentioned it a lot in his speech. I will have to mention several of my favourite local brews: Saltaire Brewery, the Goose Eye Brewery in Crossflats and the Bingley Brewery in Wilsden all produce excellent craft brews.
Those local independent breweries also need relationships with the local heritage pubs. Sometimes the tied pubcos prevent those independent breweries selling their beer in the pubs that are almost across the road. We need to look more broadly at not only the heritage pubs but the relationships between independent pubs and breweries, to ensure that the whole industry thrives.
Shipley is home to many charismatic, historic pubs that welcome locals and visitors alike. I have, because of the generosity of colleagues, been able to briefly mention a few of those historic pubs, but I will come back to one or two and give more detail about them. The Malt Shovel in Harden is a grade II listed building that lies next to one of two Roman roads that run through the village. It is believed to have been constructed as early as 1550, and as we have heard from other Members, it had a number of historical uses, including a farmhouse, a coaching house, a courtroom and a prison.
There does seem to be some connection between pubs and prisons, so I better watch out when I am next down there enjoying a pint that somebody does not decide to put me in the cell. The pub has a cell room from that time, complete with a barred window. Thankfully, I have thus far avoided that when I have been down there. That is partly because I would rather sit in the pub’s spacious beer garden, particularly after having done door knocking, which I tend to focus on during a summer blitz of the villages.
The Malt Shovel is as cosy inside, with a warm fire in the inglenook fireplace, which is reported to date back to the time of William and Mary. In the Bill, I am interested in the point about how we preserve the interiors of the pubs. As everybody has said, the character of historic pubs is not only the external façade but the interior, whether that is the inglenook fireplace, beams or other features. I would like to understand how we can preserve the interiors of heritage pubs.
The second pub that I briefly mentioned and will come back to because it is pertinent to the Bill is The Old Glen House in Baildon. It is a beautiful old building, dating back at least 500 years. At the moment, my constituents and I are very worried about its future. It has had a few years of intermittent closures, and following the departure of the recent tenants, it remains closed. It is currently missing a roof.
At my recent townhall question and answer session in Baildon, one of my constituents raised the matter of the pub. When pubs stand empty, they are at higher risk of arson—I realise that in the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire’s case there is still a pending court case, but we also see it elsewhere. The building is neglected, and the lack of roof could lead to internal damage. My constituents are rightly concerned about the impact on the building of its standing empty, and about its future.
The Old Glen House is a popular pub. It stands on the edge of Shipley glen on Baildon moor. It is a fantastic spot that people love to come to. They come on the train to Saltaire, they go through the historic Roberts Park in the Saltaire world heritage site. They catch the Shipley Glen Tramway, which is an incredible feat of Victorian engineering from 1895—it used to come up to Shipley glen where there was a fairground. That is where the pub is, and it is a fantastic local asset. I will be working with local residents, learning from some of the examples we have heard in the Chamber today of how communities have come together, but the first thing is to put pressure on the pubco to ensure it makes the necessary improvements, brings it back to its former glory and protects this valuable, community pub, the Old Glen House.
We have heard a lot about community assets and some of the challenges for communities to do that. That is one thing we need to try to understand. It is fantastic—I am a member of the Co-operative party as well—that the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 gives new powers for communities to buy assets. Communities face a lot of obstacles, as we heard so eloquently from my hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and Solway (Markus Campbell-Savours).
