Cabinet meets on 7 September to decide whether to bid for the fire-damaged Three Tuns, which Bond Wolfe auctions on 10 September with a £50,000 guide price.

Stratford-on-Avon District Council is being asked to buy the burnt-out Three Tuns in Alcester, three days before it goes to auction. The Cabinet meets at 10am on Monday 7 September. The pub is Lot 172 at Bond Wolfe’s auction on Thursday 10 September.

The report to Cabinet asks members to agree the purchase of 34 High Street, Alcester, “either through auction or by agreement”, up to a value set out in an exempt appendix that has not been published.

The recommendation is signed by Tony Perks, the council’s Deputy Chief Executive. The portfolio holder is Councillor L Adam.

What the council says about the building

The report is blunt about the state of the site. It says the building is derelict, is supported by a scaffold that blocks the pavement on one side of Alcester High Street, and is “having a significant detrimental effect on the centre of one of the main market towns” in the district.

Its account of how the building got here:

  • a major fire, about five years ago, destroyed the roof and much of the fabric
  • reinstatement costs have exceeded the value of the finished building, so no private owner has done the work
  • complications with insurance “may have left the owner of the building at the time of the fire unable to implement the works required”
  • the building was sold to the current owner on 25 July 2025 for £80,000, according to Land Registry records quoted in the report
  • the current owner has now decided to sell, and proposes auctioning it on 10 September

Alcester is about eight miles west of Stratford-upon-Avon. The Three Tuns sits on the High Street between other trading shops, in a stretch that still carries dozens of Alcester businesses.

The auction, and the price

The auctioneer’s own lot page confirms the sale. Bond Wolfe lists the “Former Three Tuns, 34 High Street, Alcester, Warwickshire, B49 5AB” as Lot 172, with a guide price of £50,000 plus fees. The auction starts at 8.30am on Thursday 10 September and is live-streamed, with bidding by proxy, telephone or internet for anyone registered by 3pm the day before.

Bond Wolfe describes a Grade II listed former public house with a former three-bedroom flat above, freehold, with vacant possession on completion. It dates the fire to 2021 and says the damage particularly affected the first floor and the roof. Viewings are external only: the firm says internal inspections are not possible on health and safety grounds.

The guide price is well below the £80,000 the council’s report says the current owner paid in July 2025.

Why the council might step in

The council appointed West Midlands Heritage Trust in April 2026 to prepare an options and viability appraisal. That work is not finished, but the report says an initial summary has already found that reconstruction costs are “likely to significantly exceed the value of the finished asset”, so “it is unlikely that a private individual will be minded to bring the building back into use”.

On that basis, the Trust considers it likely the Three Tuns will need to pass into public ownership either way, by voluntary purchase or eventually by compulsory purchase order. Buying at auction, the report argues, avoids the delay and cost of a CPO.

The report sets out a phased plan. A first phase would:

  • build an internal steel frame to hold the building up
  • secure and weatherproof the shell
  • put a decorated hoarding across the front

That would let the support scaffold come off the pavement so the footway can reopen. Cost indications for this work are in the exempt appendix and are not public. Anything beyond that phase would need a further Cabinet decision once the Trust’s appraisal is complete.

The pavement is already the subject of action by the county council. The report says that “following a recent intervention by the Highways Authority requiring the scaffold to be removed from the pavement”, the district council is in discussions with the owner about supporting the building from the inside instead.

The money, and the doubts in the council’s own report

The purchase and renovation would be funded from the council’s Business Rates Equalisation Reserve. The report says the intention is that once renovated the building would be kept and used by the council rather than sold on.

The report does not hide the risks. Its own legal section says Cabinet must first satisfy itself on two questions:

  • why this building, and not any other property that might be considered a “blight” across the district, should be bought now
  • why the purchase cannot wait until the West Midlands Heritage Trust work is finished

Its risk table lists the possibility of setting a precedent for other buildings, answered with the argument that the Three Tuns “is unique in that it is causing disturbance in the High Street of a key Market Town”. It also lists the council taking on a loss-making asset, offset by the public interest case and by grant funding.

One further point from the equalities screening: the temporary works currently restrict disabled access past the building, and the council expects that to improve if it is brought back into use.

The ward member, Councillor Tom Ballinger, is recorded as “keen to see the condition of the Three Tuns improved”. The council’s conservation team supports bringing the building back into use.

What it means for you

If you live in or shop in Alcester, the immediate practical question is the pavement. Nothing in Monday’s report reopens it on its own. The footway comes back when the building is supported internally, and that is phase one of a plan that only starts if Cabinet agrees to buy, or if the owner agrees the internal works separately.

If you were thinking of bidding yourself, the lot is public and the legal pack is on the auctioneer’s site. Bond Wolfe notes that offers above the guide price may be considered before the auction, so the sale could happen before Thursday.

If you want to watch the decision, the Cabinet meets at 10am on Monday 7 September in the Council Chamber at Elizabeth House, Church Street, Stratford-upon-Avon. The Three Tuns item is listed as urgent business and the papers are already published, minus the exempt appendix.

The auction result, either way, will tell you what happens next: a council-owned restoration project, or a fifth year of scaffolding. We will report the outcome, and we track district planning decisions on our planning news page.

Sources