The Government has confirmed that pubs in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea will see greater protection from being turned into housing.
The Planning Inspectorate approved the policy, which gives the Royal Borough the power to stop pubs being converted to residential use “where they make an important contribution to the community”.
It said that restaurants, cafés and banks also “have an important part to play in local life” so these will be protected too.
Another strand of the policy takes into account the “positive contribution” that the use of a property can make to the character of a conservation area.
The council began working to introduce such a policy because it said it has seen a 35% decline in the number of pubs in the area since 1980.
It added: “With spiralling house prices this trend has accelerated in recent years and celebrated Chelsea pub the Cross Keys was closed for conversion to residential use. While planning permission for the change of use was refused by the council, it was against this background that the Royal Borough decided to draft a policy to help keep its pubs open for business.”
Councillor Timothy Coleridge, cabinet member for planning policy, said: “Despite the economic downturn, residential land values in Kensington and Chelsea can command huge sums of money and as such they out compete any other use.
“This policy seeks to protect those uses that have lower land values, but remain of high value to the community.
“Over the past 30 years we have seen a significant reduction in the number of pubs in the borough and what we don’t want is for people to lose the ability to pop into their local for a pint and a chat.”
