In a move that will delight anyone who has ever propped up a bar, Angela Rayner has announced that all pubs in England will be protected from being converted into housing or offices. The housing secretary is set to unveil the new national planning policy framework this week, which aims to loosen planning laws to build 1.5m homes by the end of parliament. But in a twist that might make developers choke on their pints, the government has decided that the protection for pubs will now apply to every single one of them, not just the last pub standing in an area.

Originally, the proposal under Keir Starmer's 'pride in place' initiative was to protect only the final remaining pub in a community. But after hospitality campaigners warned that this limited approach could spell doom for thousands of boozers, ministers have wisely widened the net. According to the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), 794 pubs have closed this year, with 82 either demolished or converted. Pub and restaurant bosses have blamed the employer national insurance increase, the higher minimum wage, food price inflation, and high business rates for the closures.

Under the new rules, developers will have to prove there's no reasonable prospect of keeping a pub as a going concern, including evidence that it was marketed for sale for at least a year. Councils will also need to consider whether losing a pub would deprive a community of a gathering place. Rayner said: 'Pubs are part of who we are as a nation. They're where we celebrate, grieve, argue and belong, the beating heart of so many of our communities, and it's an outrage that weak protections have allowed too many of them to slip away without a fight. That's why we're drawing a line so that developers have to prove there's genuinely no way to save a pub before they can even think about knocking it down, because building the homes we desperately need should never come at the cost of the pubs we love.'

Camra, which had previously warned that limiting protection to the last pub could 'spell the end for thousands of viable pubs across England', has welcomed the move. The group said: 'Strong planning protections are needed to give people the right to try to save their pub if it is under threat of demolition or conversion. Crucially, this must apply to all pubs so communities can save their local even if there are other pubs in the same area.'

So raise a glass to progress: the government has finally realised that every pub deserves a fighting chance, even if it has to share the street with three others. Now, if only they could do something about the price of a pint.