Spalding Landlord Quits as Local Pub Closures Hit 53%

A Spalding landlord needed £12,000 a week in turnover to break even on his pub. Sales slid to £8,000, then lower once roadworks began outside his door, and he quit.

"To make a pub like this work you need to turn over £12,000 a week, some weeks we were doing quite well, around £8,000, but once the road works began outside that went down quite dramatically," Patrick Hughes told BBC Politics North.

The 66-year-old took over The Royal Mail Cart in August 2025, betting on live music nights and a community feel. Just over a year later, he's packing boxes and ending his tenancy with owner Stonegate Group.

What broke the math?

Hughes blames a stack of pressure points: climbing utility and wage bills, shifting drinking habits and a summer of roadworks on the road outside. "These days people are used to staying at home, watching TV, having cheap drink from the supermarket or off licence and getting food deliveries," he said.

The duty structure tilts toward pubs: draught alcohol sold in pubs carries duty up to 11 pence cheaper than supermarket equivalents. But the supermarket price tags still come out lower once operating costs at scale are factored in. Hughes wants that flipped. "The government needs to look at the low cost of alcohol in supermarkets primarily," he said. "Certainly the taxation in supermarkets needs to be looked at to bring about some kind of equilibrium."

His one-line verdict on the venture: "I thought there was a gap in the market but there was no market for the gap."

How bad is the local picture?

Office for National Statistics figures show 27% of pubs and bars in Lincolnshire closed between 2009 and 2025. The county count dropped from 710 to 515.

South Holland, the district containing Spalding, has lost pubs at 53% across those 16 years, falling from 75 to 35. The England average over the same window sits at 19%.

The British Beer and Pub Association pegs the 2025 closure pace at one pub a day by year's end. Chief executive Emma McClarkin OBE puts the year-to-date toll at 295. "When a pub does close, it's not just the front door that's closing, it's the heritage, the culture, the economic contribution to society and the social value," she said.

The takeaway: in South Holland, more than half the pubs that traded in 2009 are gone.

Will policy relief arrive in time?

A 20% business rates cut for qualifying pubs, social clubs and live music venues in England takes effect April 2027. McClarkin wants the cut made permanent at this month's Budget, alongside a freeze in beer duty and a widening of the draught discount.

An HM Treasury spokesperson framed the rates move as frontline relief: "The Chancellor prioritised support for the hospitality industry in his first week in the job when he cut business rates by 20% for pubs, social clubs and live music venues - saving thousands of locals over £1,000 a year."

The 2027 relief won't reach Hughes. He's already gone. Stonegate, owner of The Royal Mail Cart, did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.

What does the community counter-bid look like?

About five miles down the road, The Ship Inn in the hamlet of Surfleet Seas End sits by the River Welland. It closed last year. Now a residents' group led by Mark Newlands, who lives a few doors down, has launched a buyout campaign.

The Shipmates group is targeting £600,000 to acquire and run the pub. They've already secured an Asset of Community Value listing under the Localism Act 2011, which gives them the right to bid if the property hits the market.

"People have become fed up of the Covid way of living and they want to see their pub open," Newlands said. The Shipmates reckon the underlying business holds up: "the indications from smaller and larger investors is that it's worth doing and we've proven to our own satisfaction that it is a viable business."

The takeaway: in Spalding, the corporate model has walked and a community group is now raising cash to test whether the math works where Stonegate couldn't.