McGrath is right when he says there are other reasons why pubs have been closing in the UK over the past few years. Many villages no longer have a pub at all - I'd hate to live in such a village myself, but it seems many people don't mind. A village without a pub is a village without a heart, IMO.

A struggling village pub sold as a going concern is often worth a lot less than it would be if simply sold as a house. There may be local objections to the owner closing it down and just selling it, so the owner's strategy usually involves keeping it going for a while, deliberately running it down and making it unwelcoming to customers, so the profits dwindle until they can legitimately say the business is not viable. Then they can just close it and convert it into a private dwelling. This has been happening all over the country. Pubs are being lost every week (I forget the figure but I think it's something like 6 pubs lost every week on average). At this rate there won't be any left except in large villages or towns.

Personally I'd hate to live in the house that had recently been the village's only pub, but some people obviously have no such qualms.