At the time of writing, we are two weeks in to a fraught attempt to save our local pub, the Ivy House, in south east London. When I say "we", I mean the amazingly skilled, motivated and committed group of people who appeared from the network of streets around the pub to fight for its continued existence as soon as the news broke that its much-loved management team were being given a mere five days' notice to quit the premises after working solidly for the previous year to build up its reputation as a community pub offering quality real ale and food, and hosting a range of music and comedy events.
The campaign met with resounding early success: our Facebook group "savetheivyhouse" gained 1,000 members in a little over 24 hours, and a concerted lobbying effort from local residents and our Labour councillors resulted in the intervention of our MP, Harriet Harman, and a fast-tracked decision by English Heritage to offer Grade II listed status to the historic pub interior and impressively vintage 1930s wood-panelled "Jacobethan" back room (complete with stage that has hosted the likes of Elvis Costello and Ian Dury). This has ensured - we hope - that the pub will survive any attempt to "develop" it into residential accommodation; however, the building remains boarded up, and it seems that the only way to get the pub up and running again is to buy the freehold from the current owner, Enterprise Inns.
Following the collective hangover of the pub's closing party, we have formed a steering group with a view to buying the Ivy House on behalf of the community. Mother and toddler groups, rehearsal and exhibition space, live music, and a micro brewery in the basement are all being discussed loudly. However, we now face the challenge of transforming ourselves into an organisation that can make a serious bid for the freehold. We are considering two options. The first is a private limited company with shareholders' voting rights in proportion to the size of their investment. The second is a co-operative industrial and provident society. There are a growing number of co-operative pubs in the UK, particularly in rural areas, including Cumbria, Yorkshire and Gwynedd; however there are no co-operative pubs in central London and we are keen to consider whether there is room in the capital for a co-operative venture.
"Co-operative" is a shorthand term that can cover a variety of legal structures; what makes an organisation a co-operative is its commitment to co-operative values, including equity and democracy. Co-operative businesses are owned and run by and for the benefit of their members, and a central tenet of the co-ethos is "one member one vote": no matter how much money an individual invests, he or she gets the same one vote as everyone else. The co-operative movement will receive a further boost when sections 87-99 of the Localism Act 2011 come into force later in the summer. These provisions give communities a right to identify a building - for example a pub - that they believe to be of importance to their community. If the building comes up for sale, then they will be given a reasonable amount of time to prepare a bid to buy it.
But can a co -operative work in London? The closest blueprint is the Star on the Cliff in Salford, Manchester, bought by locals in 2009 and run as the first urban co-operatively owned pub. However, the difficulties we face are manifold. First, property prices are high relative to the rest of the UK. The last time the freehold of the Ivy House was on the market, the owner expected offers in the region of ￡650,000. Raising that amount through share capital will be a huge task in Nunhead, an area of multiple deprivation. Worse, a commercial mortgage may not be a possibility: banks usually refuse to lend on pubs which are not currently trading, assuming that the business can only be shut because it is not profitable, without taking account of cases such as the Ivy House, where a profitable business was evicted to ensure that the owners could offer vacant possession of the pub and residential accommodation upstairs to potential buyers. The longer a building is shut up, the harder it becomes to obtain commercial finance, leading to a bleak cycle of disuse. Organisations such as Co-operative and Community Finance exist to plug the "equity gap" between the capital that locals can put in to the co-operative and what a bank is prepared to lend by way of a mortgage over the freehold. However, in London that gap might well be just too large to bridge. Also, the chances of raising private investment are slim because investors are put off by what they perceive as the unwieldly decision making structure of co-operatives and the prospect of limited dividends in comparison to a limited company where shareholders vote in proportion to the size of their shareholding.
So where does this leave us? The Ivy House remains shut. But watch this space. In the words of one local resident, Tim Barnes, the Ivy House is the place that "turns a series of streets into a community" and we're not through trying to buy it yet.
Tessa Blunden is a solicitor and member of the steering group attempting to buy The Ivy House.
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To join the social enterprise network, click here.
