While hundreds of rural hostelries have shut down over the last decade, these establishments – generally owned by local “shareholders” – are gloriously bucking the trend.

In 2010, there were just 14 of them. Today, thanks to the mix of legislation, grant schemes, and rural residents determined not to lose their alehouses, more than 150 pubs once earmarked for closure are now owned by their local community.

Even that number is set to be dwarfed after applications to take over struggling establishments doubled during the last year. It means some 250 struggling boozers are currently subject to such a potential transfer of ownership.

“It is absolutely a success story,” says James Alcock, chief executive of the Plunkett Foundation, an Oxfordshire-based charity supporting such ventures. “We’ve had decades where the narrative has been that these businesses are not sustainable but it’s clear, once they are redirected towards the needs of local people – rather than the need to make profit – they become the real heart of their area once more.”

Whereas pub retailers have blamed cheap supermarket alcohol for their decline, this new breed of boozer has pivoted towards offering a far broader range of experiences. There’s good food and beer (both generally local), as well as staples such as live music and quizzes. But there’s also yoga sessions, soup kitchens, Scout nights, choir groups, art exhibitions and WI nights.

Labour will allow councils to seize abandoned shops to give them a new lease of life as cooperatives or community centres, a policy designed to revive struggling high streets.

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to announce the shake-up on a visit to a high street in Bolton on Saturday, calling the sight of boarded-up shops a “symptom of economic decay” which is lowering living standards.

Under the Labour proposals, local authorities could offer properties which had been vacant for 12 months to startups, cooperative businesses and community projects.

The policy was prompted by a study by the Local Data Company which found more than 10% of town centre shops were empty. About 29,000 retail units are estimated to have been left empty for at least a year, according to the study, which found that the high-street vacancy rate rose last year to 11.5% and that 4.8% of vacant space on high streets had been vacant for more than two years. In shopping centres, that number rose to 5.8%.

Judges for the largest horticultural competition in the UK, hosted by the Royal Horticultural Society, have noticed that a bulk of this year’s 71 finalists have opted to grow fruit and vegetables rather than ornamental blooms.

The contest, now in its 55th year, features gardening communities from all over the country,from tiny Green Moor in Yorkshire with a population of just 90 to the high-rise business district of Canary Wharf in London’s docklands.

The gardens hope to give back to the community, and locals have grown edible goods in public spaces for people to help themselves to, and for donations to food banks.

Notable and impressive examples include the city of Bath’s tiered planters featuring tomatoes, chard and herbs mixed with flowers such as fuchsias and petunias, and the green-fingered contestants in Llandudno, who have recently planted an orchard for the public to help themselves to fresh fruit.

An impassioned plea has been issued to put churches at the heart of rural communities to save them from becoming modern day irrelevancies.

The Countryside Alliance has warned churches are in danger of fading away unless they become the thriving hubs they once were.

Executive chairman Sir Barney White-Spunner urged “all faiths” be encouraged to worship “in the same building”, which should also serve a wide variety of non-religious purposes.

Alison Hawes, Devon-based spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, said it made perfect sense.

“I think it is a jolly good idea,” she said.

“We have these buildings and they need upkeep and they need to earn their keep.

“As long as there is nothing too contentious, why not use them for other things.

“I know many rural villages are already used for a variety of purposes, such as concerts and meetings.

“It brings people in through the doors.”

The government has come under increasing pressure over its investment in school sport as British athletes have shone at the Olympics.

Sir Keith Mills, chief executive of London’s bid to host the Games and now deputy chair of the organising committee, called on the government to use London 2012 as the springboard for a wholesale rethink of its sports strategy.

His remarks echo a call by Lord Moynihan, chair of the British Olympic Association, for politicians to seize the moment to make sport a higher priority.

A spokesman for the GMB union, which represents school support staff and has campaigned against the sell-off, said: “The legacy of the Olympics and the need to ‘inspire a generation’ will be short-lived if the facilities that tomorrow’s generation depend on are sold to the highest bidder or developer.”

The previous government brought in measures to prevent the indiscriminate sale of school playing fields. The rules include the requirement that sales proceeds must be used to improve sports facilities.