Waverley has rejected the owners' challenge to the Dog and Pheasant's community asset listing. The closed Brook pub is for sale at £850,000 freehold.

The Dog and Pheasant at Brook stays on Waverley’s list of Assets of Community Value. The owners asked the council to review the listing and the council has refused to remove it, which means a community group gets the right to pause any sale of the pub and put a bid together.

The pub stands on Haslemere Road in Brook, a village in Witley and Milford parish. It is about three and a half miles north east of Haslemere, four and a half miles south west of Godalming and roughly eight miles south east of Farnham.

The decision was taken on 20 July 2026 and published on the council’s decisions register on 14 September. (Waverley Borough Council, ACV Listing Review, decision 6520)

What it means for you

An Asset of Community Value listing does not stop a sale and it does not give anyone a right to buy. What it does is buy time.

If the owners decide to sell, this is the sequence Waverley sets out:

  • The owner must tell the council in writing that they want to make a relevant disposal.
  • That triggers a six week interim moratorium, in which a community interest group can tell the council it wants to be treated as a potential bidder.
  • If a group does, a six month full moratorium runs from the date the owner gave notice. The owner still does not have to sell to that group.
  • After that comes an 18 month protected period, counted from the same notice date, in which no further moratorium can be triggered.

So a village group that wants the pub has six months to raise money and build a case, rather than the weeks a private sale usually allows. That is the whole point of the listing, and it is why the review mattered.

How the listing happened

The pub stopped trading in July 2025. The paper trail since then runs like this:

  • 1 August 2025. Witley and Milford Parish Council submitted a completed nomination form under section 89 of the Localism Act 2011.
  • 20 October 2025. The council sent notice to the owners and the occupier by first class post, offering a chance to comment. Neither the owners nor the occupier responded, and neither commented on the nomination.
  • 5 December 2025. The council published its decision to include the Dog and Pheasant on its list of Assets of Community Value.
  • 31 March 2026. The owners requested a listing review under section 92 of the Localism Act 2011.
  • 20 July 2026. The Joint Strategic Director of Economy, Planning and Place confirmed the original decision.

The reviewing officer had to be satisfied on two statutory limbs under section 88(2) of the Act.

On the first, whether the building’s recent use furthered the social wellbeing or interests of the community, the officer found the pub qualified. The nomination described it as “a hub for the community”, advertising local events and businesses, hosting community groups and sporting events, and offering facilities to residents from a position opposite the village hall and cricket green. The officer noted there is established precedent for public houses meeting this test.

On the second, whether it is realistic to think that a community use could return within five years, the officer recorded that case law sets the threshold low. The nomination did not include a strategy for reopening a pub. But the officer found “strong local support for the initiative to rescue the pub through fundraising”, alongside work on an operational business plan, financial forecasts and a planned three phase programme of works to improve the building and increase its viability.

The officer concluded it is realistic to think the property “could realistically operate to serve the community again”.

What is actually for sale

The pub is on the market through Savills. The freehold guide price is £850,000, with fixtures and fittings to be discussed and negotiated. A new free of tie lease is also available, with rental offers invited and a rent deposit required. The agent’s particulars state plainly that the business is closed. (Savills, Dog and Pheasant, Haslemere Road, Brook)

What a buyer gets, according to those particulars:

  • a main bar with central servery and adjoining dining room, seating about 35
  • a first floor dining room seating about another 35
  • two kitchen areas, a utility room, larder, storage and a ground floor cellar
  • five bedrooms of private accommodation on the first floor, with two bathrooms, a kitchen and a shared reception room
  • a rear beer garden for around 110 customers, with views across the Surrey Hills
  • a gravel car park with space for about 20 vehicles

The rateable value is £54,000 from 1 April 2026, and the energy performance rating is C-70. The building is in the Green Belt and the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but not in a conservation area.

A very old building

The Dog and Pheasant was listed Grade II on 28 October 1986, list entry number 1096968. Historic England’s entry describes it as a “Hall house, now public house. Late C15/Early C16, altered and extended in the 1930’s.”

It is timber framed with a whitewashed brick front, tile hung above, under a hipped and gablet plain tiled roof, two storeys and four framed bays. (Historic England, list entry 1096968)

Two records that have not caught up

Anyone checking this for themselves will hit two documents that say something older than the decision.

The council’s own published list does not show the pub. Waverley publishes its List of Assets of Community Value as a PDF, with columns for the listing decision date, the five year expiry, any review decision and the moratorium dates. The most recent entries in the version online today are from 2024. There is no row for the Dog and Pheasant, more than nine months after it was listed. (Waverley Borough Council, List of Assets of Community Value in Waverley Borough)

The sale particulars describe the listing as unresolved. Savills tells prospective buyers that the parish council “have nominated the property to be an Asset of Community Value (granted Waverley Borough Council December 2025) pending further review”. That review has now happened, and it went against the owners.

Neither point changes the legal position. Both matter to anyone relying on a search rather than the decision itself.

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