FEARS are being expressed for the future of pubs and bars in the borough as it was revealed up to a fifth had closed in just eight years.

Rounded figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that of the roughly 100 public houses and bars operating across Basingstoke and Deane in 2010, 20 had closed by 2017.

Of those, 15 disappeared in the 12 months from 2014 to 2016.

Arguments have ranged over the cause with some claiming a change in drinking culture as people choose to consume drinks at home, usually bought cheaply at shops, and so turning their backs on pubs.

Others have blamed the taxman, complaining about the duty on beer, VAT levels and the cost of business rates.

For Caroline Wells, landlady of the independently-run Red Lion in Overton, it is a combination of factors, most notably business rates and the rise of chain pub and restaurants.

Caroline, a landlady for 21 years, said: "The younger generation would rather go to a chain restaurant for two-for-one cocktails rather than to chat to their friends at their local pub and support an independent business.

"Unless people starting using pubs again, they will close. It is as simple as that.

"Things have never been harder."

John Buckley, a spokesperson for the North Hampshire and Upper Test Pubs Group, laid the blame at the door of pub companies.

He said: “With so many pub closures the trade needs to react to changing social needs for better and higher quality service but are too often held back by the owning pubcos who fail to invest while placing ever increasing charges on tenants.

"While there are successes far too many publicans to lose their livelihoods and are being forced into debt. Communities lose the pubs which provide essential social and economic benefits as the pubcos cash in on residential land values.”

However, Councillor Simon Bound, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council's cabinet member for communities and community safety, said there had to be a different perspective to looking at pub closures.

He said: "Some communities have fewer facilities and so you see pubs taking on other amenities like being a post office as well. But some other pubs attract people with alcohol problems and anti-social behaviour and I'm sure communities there would rather that pub wouldn't stay open."

Cllr Bound added communities also have tools to fight pub closures for redevelopment, such as the community of asset value legislation where people can get six months to build up a legitimate business plan for facilities such as a pub and then prevent it from the threat of redevelopment.

The councillor added: "You can build up a plan before there is a threat too. Then it is on the shelf, ready to go.

"We've seen that in Monk Sherborne - there the community fought an application to build flats and now the community runs The Mole [Inn] there."

Across the UK 5,745 pubs closed between 2010 and 2017.

The ONS rounds the numbers in the dataset to avoid identifying individual pubs.