Herefordshire country pub ‘can’t be used as HMO’

The owner of a closed Herefordshire country pub has been told its current use as a house of multiple occupation (HMO) is not allowed.

Elliot Thomas, a local parish councillor, applied to Herefordshire Council in October 2024 for retrospective permission to change the staff and bed & breakfast accommodation at The Slip Tavern, Much Marcle to HMO use.

His application said the change, with minimal alterations to the building, had already been carried out by June 2024, shortly after the pub closed to customers.

Accompanying plans showed five bedrooms plus a kitchen and living room on the first floor, and a further bedroom to the rear of the ground floor, with the bar area left intact.

The council only validated the application this January, 15 months after its submission.

Planning officer Josh Bailey noted that, with its facilities still in place, “it could be regarded that the Slip Tavern could still partly be used as a public house rather than the premises changing to a house of multiple occupation altogether”.

But he added that “careful thought needs to be given as to the impact [of the HMO use] on the pub’s long term viability, namely its attractiveness to future owners, when the day may well come to sell the pub as a business”.

The “modest benefits” of additional local accommodation had to be set against the “unsustainable” location outside the village, while the proposal was “further undermined by (its) retrospective nature” and the lack of pre-application discussion with the council, he concluded.

Planning permission for the change of use was refused.

Attempts were made to contact Mr Thomas.