The Great Gransden Community Benefit Society

The purchase price is a matter for negotiation, at this point in time there is likely a gap between the marketed price of £350,000 and the offer made by the committee.

Public Houses are among those types of property generally referred to as “trade related property”. They are normally bought and sold having regard to their trading potential. The valuation of a “trade related property” (ie Public Houses) depends on the “Fair Maintainable Operating Profit” (FMOP) derived from the “Fair Maintainable Turnover” (FMT) produced by a “Reasonably Efficient Operator” (REO).

Pubs are usually valued as a “fully equipped operational entity” with a full trade inventory and licences. Where this is not the case the valuation would be discounted to reflect the cost and time involved in purchasing and installing the trade inventory and obtaining new licences. (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Guidance Note GN 67/2010)

Simply put, unlike private residential houses, Public Houses are valued based on the level of profit the business can generate if run by a competent landlord. The expectation is that a pub when sold is ready to do business. If the necessary equipment and licences are missing then the valuation will be reduced to cover the cost or reinstating those items.

A “Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Red book valuation” is required to qualify for matched grant funding.

A Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors register valuer and Fellow of the Association of Valuers of Licensed Property undertook a drive-by survey on the 4th November 2024. The result was that the pub was priced as follows:

Market Value as a Fully Equipped Operational Entity with regard to full Trading Potential

- £295,000

Market Value as a Fully Equipped Operational Trading in Default 

- £255,000

Market Value of the Empty Property Closed - in Default 

- £215,000 

Thus, the C&C as a closed pub is valued at £215,000. If the pub were operated at it’s full potential by a “reasonably efficient operator” the value derived from the “Fair Maintainable Operating Profit” would be £295,000. 

Trading in default means trading below full potential

 £270,000. The title also has a “restriction” to ensure the local authority are notified of any sale so that the community can start the ACV “community right to bid” process.

Your investment helps with the purchase, ongoing upkeep, and improvements to the Crown and Cushion, as well as developing financial reserves. It helps ensure the pub remains a community asset in the long term.

Anyone over the age of 16 can buy shares for themselves or as a gift for someone else. Shares can be bought for and held for those under the age of 16, which will be issued to them at age 16. 

A group of people known as an unincorporated association; however, one person must be nominated as a member of the Society. 

A business, organisation or other incorporated body.

The minimum you can invest will be set in the share offer prospectus

The maximum that can be invested is £100,000, which is the legal limit for individual investments in community benefit societies.

No. Shares in the Society can never be worth more than their face value.

Our goal will be to offer a modest return to investors by way of interest paid gross, but our rules state that this cannot happen until after the 3rd year of operation. These payments will, however, be dependent on the Society generating sufficient surplus to maintain responsible financial management. 

Each year, interest payments will be reviewed as part of the annual financial process. Any proposals from the Board will be subject to approval at the Annual Members’ Meeting. 

The level of interest paid will follow the Society’s rules, which set a cap at either 5% or the Bank of England base rate plus 3%, whichever is greater.

An Investors' Pack will be produced in due course, providing full details on how your investment will be handled. 

Based on the rules of other community pubs,  you would not be allowed to withdraw your shares in the first three years. After that, you would need to give at least three months’ notice.  

An Investors' Pack will be produced in due course, providing full details on how your investment will be handled. 

The government offer support to investors that are designed to help smaller higher-risk trading companies raise finance by offering a range of tax reliefs to investors who purchase new shares in those companies. There are also special capital gains and inheritance tax treatments.

The investors pack with outline these opportunities with worked examples.

 All monies will be returned as soon as possible once the decision not to proceed is made 

 The Society has a statutory “Asset Lock”. This means that in the event that the society is dissolved and assets sold, shareholders would be repaid up to the value of their investment after settlement of all debts. 

You might receive the full value of your shares back or you might lose part or all of your investment. Any surplus remaining after such repayment, would be paid to a qualifying community body as decided by the membership of the society.

The share offer is unregulated, as it is exempt from the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 or subsidiary regulations, which means there is no right of complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, nor can you apply to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Yes, they do. Everyone has an equal voice, regardless of the size of their investment.

The primary purpose of the Crown and Cushion is that of a PUBLIC HOUSE. The only residential use of the building that can lawfully take place is residential use ancillary to the settled planning use. So, if active public house use stops for any significant length of time, so does the entitlement to live in any part of the property.

The position in law is very simple and set out in Planning Inspectorate Appeal Decisions Cleveland Arms ref: 3199253 paragraph 11 by Planning Inspector Thomas Shields MA DipURP MRTPI.

“The only residential use of the building which could lawfully take place would be a residential use ancillary to the main use as a PH, as previously existed before 3 January 2016. However, given the considerable length of time during which there has only

been an active residential use of the building, with no active use as a PH, the residential use is no longer an ancillary use; it has become the sole and primary use of the building. “

Yes. The freeholder does not have to open the Public House, and can leave it closed and unused if they so choose.

However, HDC’s Planning Enforcement Officer has advised they do not have an automatic right to use the property as a Dwellinghouse while it remains closed as a Public House.

Two key planning regulations [1&2] and two planning policies [3+4] apply to the Crown and Cushion PUBLIC HOUSE:

1) It is categorised in “Use Class Sui Generis - in a class on it’s own” as a PUBLIC HOUSE, thus can only be used as a Public House. (UK Statutory Instruments 2020 No. 757 Regulation 10)

2) It is listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) as a Public House. (English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 Schedule 31 – Assets of community value)

3) The Huntingdonshire Local Plan does not support a “change of use” of Public Houses in communities unless “reasonable steps have been taken to effectively market the property for its current use without success”. (Huntingdonshire Local Plan, policy LP 22, 15 May 2019

4) The Huntingdonshire Local Plan states “Great weight and importance is given to the conservation of heritage assets and their settings. The statutory presumption of the avoidance of harm can only be outweighed if there are public benefits that are powerful enough to do so.” (Huntingdonshire Local Plan, policy LP 34, 15 May 2019)

The Crown & Cushion is a Grade II listed building in a conservation area.

 The ACV provisions give local groups (eg a parish council) a right to nominate a building or other land for listing by the local authority as an asset of community value. A building or other land in a local authority’s area is land of community value if in the opinion of the authority an actual current use of the building or other land that is not an ancillary use furthers the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community, and it is realistic to think that there can continue to be non-ancillary use of the building or other land which will further (whether or not in the same way) the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community.

Listing as an ACV brings a number of consequences:

• A community right to buy (first refusal) should the asset be put on the market at a price determined by local authority valuation
• An ACV can be a material consideration in any planning request for change of use.
• Compulsory purchase by the community.

Removal of the "Recent Past" Requirement: Previously, if a pub had sat derelict or closed for years, it failed the "recent past" community-use test. The rule has been removed; provided the asset served the community at any point in the past

Huntingdonshire List of Assets of Community Value (C&C is listed as Ref 82-5)

https://www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/media/k3tm15px/list-of-assets-of-community-value.pdf

 The Community Right to Buy is a legislative power that empowers local groups to purchase valued neighbourhood assets—such as pubs, shops, social spaces, and derelict land when they go up for sale or are neglected. It gives communities the "first option" or right of first refusal to buy these spaces so they are preserved for community use rather than sold off or closed down. (English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 Schedule 31, Assets of community value), once the Commencement Order is issued.

An ACV can be a material consideration in any planning request for change of use, for example to “Use Class C3”, a dwellinghouse. A local planning authority having granted an ACV would find it difficult to justify such a change of use. (Department for Communities and Local Government, Assets of Community Value – Policy Statement)

The Huntingdonshire Local Plan does not support change of use of Public Houses in communities unless reasonable steps have been taken to effectively market the property for its current use without success. (Huntingdonshire Local Plan, policy LP22, 15 May 2019)

A change of use of land or buildings requires planning permission if it constitutes a material change of use. There is no statutory definition of ‘material change of use’; however, it is linked to the significance of a change and the resulting impact on the use of land and buildings. Whether a material change of use has taken place is a matter of fact and degree and this will be determined on the individual merits of a case.

The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987, as amended, groups common uses of land and buildings into classes. The uses within each class are, for planning purposes, considered to be broadly similar to one another. 

The different use classes are:

Part B (Schedule 1)

Class B2 – General Industrial

Class B8 – Storage and distribution

Part C (Schedule 1)

Class C1 – Hotels

Class C2 – Residential institutions

Class C2A – Secure residential institutions

Class C3 – Dwellinghouses

Class C4 – Small Houses in multiple occupation

Part A (Schedule 2) Commercial, Business and Service

Class E – Commercial, Business and Service

Part B (Schedule 2) Local Community and Learning

Class F.1 Learning and non-residential institutions

Class F.2 Local community facilities

Sui Generis (A class of its own kind)

Not all uses of land or buildings fit within the use classes order. When no use classes order category fits, the use of the land or buildings is described as sui generis, which means ‘of its own kind’. The uses identified as sui generis can include but is not limited to: theatres, public houses, hot food takeaways, petrol stations, taxi businesses, and casinos.

Any change of use, from one class to another, requires planning permission.

A planning contravention notice can be used to allow the local planning authority to require any information they want for enforcement purposes about any operations being carried out; any use of; or any activities being carried out on the land, and can be used to invite its recipient to respond constructively to the local planning authority about how any suspected breach of planning control may be satisfactorily remedied.

A planning contravention notice may only be served when it appears to the local planning authority that a breach of planning control may have occurred and they want to find out more information before deciding what if any enforcement action to take.

An enforcement notice is issued where the local planning authority is satisfied that it appears to them that there has been a breach of planning control and it is expedient to issue a notice, taking into account the provisions of the development plan and any other material considerations. The power to issue an enforcement notice is discretionary.

There is a range of ways of tackling alleged breaches of planning control, and local planning authorities should act in a proportionate way.

Failure to comply with enforcement would resulted in a criminal prosecution.

 In most cases, development becomes immune from enforcement if no action is taken:

• within 10 years of substantial completion for a breach of planning control consisting of operational development;
• within 10 years for an unauthorised change of use to a single dwellinghouse;
•  within 10 years for any other breach of planning control (essentially other changes of use not related to dwellinghouses).

Section 115 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, which officially took effect on 25 April 2024.

If requested and funded by a community group, councils have powers to compulsory purchase if the community use of the asset is in danger of being lost.  

(Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government - Compulsory purchase process: guidance, Section 19: For community assets (at the request of the community or a local body)

 For the legal ACV processes to work there has to be community activism and organisation. A number of recognised charities and government organisations offer guidance, material and financial support to groups engaged these activities. When acting within the guidance provided by these organisations, no harassment is taking place. The Great Gransden CBS Ltd is working closely with several not-for-profit groups as well as HDC and our elected councillors and MP representatives.

Refused applications

“Change of Use, including internal works, from Public House (Sui-Generis) to Dwelling (Class C3)” 25/00078/FUL 

“Use as a dwellinghouse within Class C3” 25/01925/CLED

Accepted Applications

“Internal works to Public House (Sui-Generis)” 25/00079/LBC