Last Orders to Save Rural Hospitality

Aim

Donate to Plunkett and help communities keep the last light on

Right now, rural communities are fighting to hold on to vital local services – and they should not have to do it alone.

Pubs, as well as cafés, restaurants and other hospitality businesses, are facing existential threats. They are being forced to the brink by rising costs, business rates that don’t recognise their wider value, and a system that makes it harder every year for community-focused places to survive. 

Rural businesses are not disappearing because they no longer matter to people, but because they are being pushed to the brink by factors outside their control. 

If closures continue at the current rate, nearly half of the UK’s pubs and clubs could shut by 2030, according to a recent report by Capital on Tap. 

Without action now, many more communities could lose their last remaining hub.

When a rural pub closes, it is rarely just a temporary loss. Once the doors shut and the building is sold or converted, a piece of community life is lost for good.

Give the cost of a pint. Help keep the last light on.

What we lose when a pub closes

A pub is never just a pub. It’s a vital hub where people connect, where newcomers meet new friends, where loneliness and isolation are quietly eased and where young people take their first steps into work. 

When the shop has gone, the bank has closed and the bus barely runs, the pub is often the last light still on. It keeps connection alive in places that too often feel overlooked.

And without support, that light could go out.

What would it mean if your community lost its local? The place where you’ve made memories, formed friendships, met loved-ones and celebrated births, deaths and marriages. The warm space where people come and feel a sense of belonging.

Two British pubs closed every day in the first quarter of 2026, according to industry figures. This is not a slow decline in the distance. It is a crisis unfolding right now, and it is accelerating.

That is why we must act together to protect the pubs, cafés and hospitality businesses that hold rural communities together.

Help Plunkett to keep the last light on

If these iconic businesses are to be saved, community ownership is the answer.

Plunkett’s Save Rural Hospitality campaign, Keep the Last Light On, will help meet two urgent needs:

• To help communities that are fighting to save their pub, before it is lost forever.
• To support existing community-owned pubs that are being worn down by costs and a system that doesn’t recognise their social value.

We are aiming to raise £35,000 so we can keep standing alongside rural communities that are working tirelessly to save the places that matter most. Every donation will go towards helping us to support 14 pubs and other hospitality businesses at risk of permanent closure.

£5.34 is the average cost of a pint.

By gifting the cost of a pint, your donation will help us to offer:

• bespoke support to help with business planning, income generation and community engagement
• visits from specialist advisers to assess help improve premises and critique business plans
• access to expertise from our business experts.

Give the cost of a pint. Help keep the last light on.

"Three years ago we saved our local pub. The team at Plunkett UK supported our group from the very start, and it would not have been possible without them. We cannot thank them enough."
Viki Carpenter - Prince of Wales community pub, Newtown, Cornwall

Our call to policymakers

Community businesses are designed and governed to provide warm and welcoming community spaces and focus on financial sustainability ahead of making profit. We believe business rates relief should be as generous as possible for organisations with community-focused governance structures, due to the unique social benefit they provide alongside their services. The stability of long-term, appropriate rates relief would be transformative for rural communities without hurting public finances.

Stand with us

Every time a pub closes, we all feel it in some way. Something bigger is lost: connection, confidence, identity. This is not just about saving buildings. It is about refusing to accept the steady erosion of rural life.

By supporting Plunkett to Save Rural Hospitality to Keep the Last Light On, you are standing with communities who are saying: this matters, and we will not let the lights go out quietly.

The Drewe Arms is one of over 360 rural community-owned hospitality businesses that Plunkett is proud to have supported.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st December 2026 at 11:59pm