Acocks Green pub to be sold for £1
A MIDLAND pub has been put up for sale for £1 – less than half the cost of a pint.
Wannabe landlords are being offered the chance to purchase The Great Western in Acocks Green, Birmingham, at the rock-bottom price.
Current owner Enterprise Inns initially set a £10,000 purchase figure on the three-storey boozer, but failed to attract any offers.
Now in a desperate bid to entice a new leaseholder during the credit crunch, the company has dropped the price to a rock-bottom £1.
But the incredible figure may be too good to be true. Because any buyer would have to pay extra for furniture and contents – as well as beer and rent to the landord.
Bridgette Wayre has been landlady at the Yardley Road boozer off and on for more than seven years.
And she said she was not surprised Enterprise Inns had gone to such extreme lengths to secure a sale of the pub which she admitted needed some refurbishment.
“They’ve been trying to sell it for a while, but I think they have struggled because of the credit crunch,’’ she said.
“Yet it’s a good pub with a lot going for it, even if it does need a bit of refurbishing.
“I’ll stop here until they find someone to take the place on. The customers reckon I’ve made more comebacks than Arnold Schwarzenegger. They are fed up of buying me leaving presents!”
New figures from the British Beer and Pub Association show 211 Midland boozers closed in the second half of 2008 which, at a rate of eight per week, is the highest number in any UK region.
The Great Western regulars hope their pub, which boasts a large lounge and separate bar, will not be next and that a new leaseholder can be found.
Computer programmer Simon Britton, 40, from Acocks Green, said: “At the moment they are almost trying to give pubs away because they are not doing very well.
