Somerset pub The Sheep and Penguin 'validated' by CAMRA award
The owners of a pub say being recognised with an award just two years after opening has been "validating".The Sheep and Penguin in Wells, Somerset, was named pub of the year by the Bath and Borders CAMRA.Its new owners bought the site - where the Mermaid previously traded before its closure about 13 years ago - in 2023, and gave it a complete overhaul to run it as a pub and accommodation business.Sam James, the operations manager of the venue, said the pub's success was down to the team, the building's new fit-out and the range of drinks available.
According to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), nearly 300 pubs closed across England and Wales in 2024, the equivalent of six closures a week.Talking about opening a pub in this climate, Mr James said his family were "confident" they could make a good go of it."We felt like we knew enough about pubs from frequenting them that we could create a good offering," he said."We can buck the trend and show that if you give pubs a bit of love and TLC, actually they can become key places in the community... and they can thrive."Part of this means the pub is trying to get in drinks from smaller, local independent breweries, rather than big brands.
Mr James said: "The strength comes from our staff, and we're trying to become a community pub."He praised the pub's chef, housekeeper and front-of-house team, and said the general manager was "an encyclopaedia of all sorts of beers and liquors".Mr James added that the team hoped to "keep on building" on what they had achieved.A spokesperson for Bath & Borders CAMRA said they were "thrilled" to present the pub with the award, after a "stunning restoration" of the venue.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
40 minutes ago
- The Independent
Landlords say homes energy efficiency schedule is ‘detached from reality'
The Government's plan to improve the energy efficiency of all private rented homes is 'detached from reality', landlords have warned. The proposed timeframe for requiring all properties to meet a higher efficiency rating is 'simply unrealistic' largely due to a shortage of tradespeople to carry out the work, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) said. The Government's consultation on the plan, which aims to cut bills and emissions to deliver a statutory fuel poverty target, closed last month. It proposes that all privately rented properties must meet a minimum efficiency standard C, rather than the current required rating of E, by 2030. The NRLA said that while landlords support the overall objective, the Government must rethink its implementation process. Under the Government's current timeline, the new minimum efficiency standard, which will be set against new metrics, will be confirmed in late 2026, with a view to it applying to all new tenancies by 2028 – and all tenancies by 2030. The NRLA said this could give landlords less than two years to upgrade more than 2.5 million rented homes that it estimates do not currently meet the new energy performance standard. It also said ministers have not explained how the 'extensive' works will be funded. In its response to the consultation, the NRLA cited research by the Kingfisher group, the owner of brands such as Screwfix, B&Q and Tradepoint, which estimated there will be a shortfall of 250,000 skilled tradespeople in the UK by 2030. The NRLA proposed an adjusted implementation plan which requires landlords to meet specified standards relating to the fabric of the building, such as improved insulation, by 2030. All landlords should then meet secondary standards relating to smart meters and efficient heating systems by 2036, it said. NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle said: 'We want all private rented properties to be as energy efficient as possible. However, tenants are being sold a pup with timelines that are hopelessly unrealistic. 'The idea that millions of homes can be retrofitted in less than two years is detached from all reality, not least given the chronic shortage of tradespeople the sector needs to get the work done. 'Noble ambitions mean little without practical and realistic policy to match.' In its annual report in 2024, the advisory Committee on Fuel Poverty said: ' Failure to make rapid progress in the private rented sector on energy efficiency will fundamentally undermine any Government strategy to end fuel poverty.' A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: 'Everyone deserves to live in a warm home, which is why we have recently consulted on plans to require private landlords to meet higher energy performance standards. 'These plans could lift up to half a million households out of fuel poverty by 2030, while also making renters hundreds of pounds better off. 'We have also announced plans to train up to 18,000 skilled workers to install heat pumps, fit solar panels, install insulation and work on heat networks.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Bereaved families of dead pensioners could be pursued over winter fuel payments
Bereaved families of tens of thousands of dead pensioners could be pursued by tax officials to recoup winter fuel payments under a new system being explored by the Treasury, the Guardian has learned. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, confirmed on Wednesday that more pensioners will get winter fuel payments reinstated this year after weeks of uncertainty over the government's decision to make a U-turn on scrapping the benefit. Ministers are looking at restoring the payments as a universal benefit and then recouping the money when high-income pensioners fill in their tax returns, as creating a new means test would be a highly complex option. However, government insiders are concerned about a time lag of at least six months between the payment of up to £300 being made and it then being clawed back. It is feared that thousands could have died in that time, leaving grieving families to pick up the bill. One source said: 'We should never have scrapped the winter fuel payment in the first place, but the whole process of reinstating it has been completely chaotic. The optics of us demanding the money back from grieving families are dire.' The chancellor has brought forward confirmation of the change to the £11,500 income threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the benefit to next week's spending review from the autumn budget, after a backlash against one of the most unpopular policies of the Labour government. In a further attempt to win public support and quell Labour backbench concerns, ministers are announcing on Thursday that all pupils in England whose families claim universal credit will be eligible for free school meals under an expansion of the scheme. Hundreds of thousands more children across the country will be able to access means-tested free school meals when the provision is extended from September 2026, after campaigners and school leavers urged ministers to take action on child poverty amid fears of delays. Reeves has already launched a charm offensive to persuade fractious Labour MPs that her spending review will not be a return to austerity, announcing £15bn for trams, trains and buses outside London as part of a £113bn investment in capital projects over the rest of the parliament. The chancellor wants capital spending to be at the centre of the government's narrative at the review next week in an acknowledgment that MPs, many of them in marginal seats, need a better economic story to address rising discontent among the public. Nearly 2.1 million pupils – almost one in four of the total in England – were eligible for free school meals in January 2024. The Department for Education has said more than half a million more children are expected to benefit from the expansion, with nearly £500 put back into parents' pockets every year. It suggested that the expansion will lift 100,000 children across England completely out of poverty, with the move being the most effective way of tackling the issue outside the benefits system. Keir Starmer has said the government will look at scrapping the two-child benefits limit. 'It is the moral mission of this government to tackle the stain of child poverty, and today this government takes a giant step towards ending it with targeted support that puts money back in parents' pockets,' the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said. The expansion of free school meals was almost universally welcomed by anti-poverty campaigners and teaching unions. Nick Harrison, chief executive of the Sutton Trust, said: 'This is a significant step towards taking hunger out of the classroom. 'Children can't learn effectively when hungry, so this announcement not only helps to tackle the effects of child poverty, but will also likely help improve education outcomes for disadvantaged young people.' Kate Anstey, at the Child Poverty Action Group charity, said: 'This is fantastic news and a gamechanger for children and families. At last, more kids will get the food they need to learn and thrive and millions of parents struggling to make ends meet will get a bit of breathing space.' Asked about the winter fuel payment after a speech in Rochdale, Reeves told reporters: 'We have listened to the concerns that people had about the level of the means test, and so we will be making changes to that; they will be in place so that pensioners are paid this coming winter. 'We'll announce the detail of that and the level of that as soon as we possibly can. But people should be in no doubt that the means test will increase and more people will get a winter fuel payment this winter.' The option of paying all pensioners a winter fuel payment and then asking for wealthier people to repay the money is a similar approach to that taken by the former Conservative chancellor George Osborne when he reduced child benefit eligibility for better-off parents. A senior official at HMRC, Jonathan Athow, confirmed to the Treasury select committee on Wednesday that if the tax system was used to make the changes, it would not be possible until next year. 'We'd have to get to April next year before we knew somebody's income, before we could then make any decisions about how [recouping the payment] would then be implemented,' he told MPs. The government's reversal came despite Downing Street denying that it would make changes to winter fuel payments after the Guardian revealed that it was rethinking the cut amid anxiety at the top of government that the policy could wreak serious electoral damage. The chancellor also hinted at tensions between cabinet colleagues saying she had had to turn down spending requests as she struggled to balance the books. 'Not every department will get everything that they want next week,' she said, 'and I have had to say no to things that I want to do too.' Just two Whitehall departments are still to agree their multi-year budgets with the Treasury before the spending review, the Guardian understands, with the home secretary, Yvette Cooper and the housing secretary, Angela Rayner, holding out on policing and social housing budgets. She also ruled out bending her fiscal rules, as some Labour MPs have urged her to do, and which she acknowledged would be the subject of much discussion over the coming days. It means that tax rises or further spending cuts are more likely this autumn.
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Charities welcome half a million more children being eligible for free school meals
Charities and school leaders have welcomed free school meals being opened up to more than half a million extra children. The government has announced it will make children in all households on universal credit in England eligible for free school meals from September 2026. Parents will be nearly £500 better off each year because of the change, the Department for Education said. Currently, only pupils from households with an income of less than £7,400 a year are eligible for free school meals, meaning hundreds of thousands of children living in poverty do not have access to them. The latest figures, from January 2024, show 2.1m children were eligible for free school meals - 24.6% of all pupils in England. The government has not said how it will fund another 500,000 children's school meals. It also claimed the eligibility expansion would lift 100,000 children across England completely out of poverty, but did not provide details of how. Charities broadly welcomed the change, with The Children's Society calling it a "practical, compassionate step that will make a real difference". Chief executive Mark Russell said it is a move his charity has been pushing for and would lift thousands of children out of hunger and help ease the pressure on households struggling to make ends meet. The Child Poverty Action Group said it was "fantastic news and a game-changer for children and families". "We hope this is a sign of what's to come in autumn's child poverty strategy, with government taking more action to meet its manifesto commitment to reduce child poverty in the UK," Kate Anstey, head of education policy, said. School leaders' union NAHT welcomed the change but asked for the government to introduce "auto-enrolment so no child entitled to a free meal misses out". NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman added: "It's vital that this positive extension of free school meals is backed up by other tangible measures which help lift even more children out of poverty when the government's child poverty taskforce reports back later this year." 2:37 At the end of May, the government delayed publishing its child poverty strategy until the autumn over Treasury concerns about the cost implications of ending the two-child limit on universal credit, which is expected to be part of the strategy. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pushed Sir Keir Starmer on whether he will lift it at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday after the PM last week said the government "will look at" scrapping it, in his strongest indication yet that he will. On the free school meals announcement, Sir Keir said: "Working parents across the country are working tirelessly to provide for their families but are being held back by cost-of-living pressures. "My government is taking action to ease those pressures. Feeding more children every day, for free, is one of the biggest interventions we can make to put more money in parents' pockets, tackle the stain of poverty, and set children up to learn. "This expansion is a truly historic moment for our country, helping families who need it most and delivering our Plan for Change to give every child, no matter their background, the same chance to succeed." Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson called it a "giant step" towards ending child poverty.
