WARRINGTON North Labour MP Charlotte Nichols shares her views in this week’s column

Last week I was delighted to attend the reopening of the Raven Inn.

After five long years, the commitment of the local community campaigners has succeeded in rescuing and restoring it for the residents of Glazebury and Culcheth, and I would particularly like to thank Peter Sturman and Bob Eden for their efforts in co-ordinating this community action. It was a brilliant occasion, and I look forward to future visits.

Unfortunately this success story is in contrast to the threat that so many other pubs face up and down the country.

Warrington Guardian readers may have read about the recent shocking destruction of the 18th century Crooked House in Dudley, which was burnt and then demolished within a week of being sold to new owners.

I am glad that the police are treating this as arson, but there have been too many instances of beloved pubs conveniently and mysteriously being destroyed shortly after being bought by developers, on top of all the other threats that pubs face, with 2000 having been lost since the start of the pandemic.

As Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Pubs, I want to see more Raven results and fewer Crooked House catastrophes.

To keep pubs open we want VAT reduced for the hospitality sector, as it was during Covid, and business rates reformed.

They are suffering like everyone from the vastly increased costs of energy and businesses are being put at risk.

The Pubs Code Adjudicator should also have additional powers, in order to help level the playing field between PubCos and the tenants in tied pubs, and licensees in free of tie pubs.

Our pubs are important both for the central part they play in our communities, and for the employment they give so many people, including young people, with one in six new jobs in hospitality. Pubs play an important role as a social space in tackling loneliness, providing a venue for many of our grassroots sports clubs and for musical artists to build an audience.

We know how they are valued when we see the efforts that so many people put into saving pubs like the Raven Inn, but too many are neglected and allowed to shut because of short-term financial problems so that we lose a community asset forever.

Although councils have powers to list pubs as assets of community value, these are inconsistently used and often have unreachable criteria. In Warrington we are rightly celebrating the return of the Raven Inn, but I hope we can be looked at as an inspiration and model to save pubs across the country and once more show that Warrington leads the way!