More than a Pub: The Community Pub Business Support Programme

The More than a Pub programme provided business development support and funding to enable the community control of pubs in both rural and urban communities across England.

The programme, funded by Power to Change and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and led by the Plunkett Foundation ran from 2016-2021. Under the programme 63 pubs were supported in to community control by the end of March 2021. During the covid-19 lockdown the MTAP programme provided small grants to around half of the community pubs in England. By the end of the programme, over 60% of the trading community pubs in England received some form of support through the More Than a Pub programme.

Avon Dassett Community Benefit Society benefited from this programme and a condition of this funding was that we are required to enhance the Society by providing services that would not perhaps been part of a traditional pub offering but offered additional benefits to the community at large.