Rishi has welcomed a community group’s success in securing government funds to help buy and re-open their village pub.
The Old Horn Community Pub has been awarded almost £200,000 from the Community Ownership Fund to purchase, refurbish and re-open the Old Horn Inn, Spennithorne, near Leyburn.
The group’s application to the fund, which is run by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, was formally supported by Rishi in his role as constituency MP for Richmond (Yorks).
He said: “The Old Horn Community Pub group had drawn up a compelling business case to take the pub into community ownership and I was delighted to support it and to hear about the group’s successful application. I very look forward to seeing the Old Horn re-opening and once more at the heart of the local community.”
The fund grant, made up of £180,000 towards capital costs and £19,740 for legal, survey and accountancy fees, matches funds raised by the group through a share issue.
Andrew Simon, secretary of the Old Horn Community Pub group, said: “We have received everything we asked for. Work now starts on successfully completing the purchase and refurbishment with a view to having the pub open later this year, ideally in time to catch some of this summer’s trade.”
He said the group was grateful for the support it had received from their local councillor, Tom Jones, and Rishi in backing their application.
Cllr Jones, the North Yorkshire councillor for Lower Wensleydale, said: “A huge well done to all involved whose energetic community leadership and hard work has been rightly rewarded.”
Rishi has supported community pub initiatives at Hudswell and Skeeby near Richmond, and at Exelby and Hunton, near Bedale.
At Hunton, the Countryman’s Inn community pub group recently received £230,000 from the same fund, again matching money raised locally.
The government is providing £150 million over four years to support community groups in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to take ownership of assets and amenities at risk of being lost.
Voluntary and community groups can bid for match funding to acquire important assets and run them for the benefit of the local community.
The Fund will run until 2024/25.
