The headlines are unequivocal: the British pub is on its last legs. First, figures showed that beer volumes in pubs were falling at more than 10 per cent. Last week, it was the turn of the real ale brigade as Camra used the launch of the Good Beer Guide 2009 to pronounce: “Supermarkets are killing the pub.” A few days earlier the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) claimed that pub closures had accelerated to 36 a week — that's almost 1,900 a year. By my calculation, that means that by 2040 Britain will be a pub-free zone.

Hyperbole aside, it cannot be denied that the pub industry is facing the most challenging trading climate in living memory. Consumer confidence is fragile, the smoking ban has driven away a sizeable chunk of the most loyal drinkers, supermarkets are selling alcohol at scandalously cheap prices and the cost of food, wages and utilities continue to spiral. Throw in the Chancellor's determination to wring every last penny of duty from the humble pint and one could forgive landlords for locking themselves in the cellar and drinking themselves into oblivion.

The good news is that most publicans and pub companies are made of sterner stuff. While the deteriorating trading backdrop has made some pubs uneconomic, there is no shortage of people in the trade who have rolled up their sleeves and sought to reinvent themselves in line with changing consumer requirements. Take Mitchells & Butlers (M&B). What was once little more than an outlet for sales of Bass beer now focuses on sophisticated food-based concepts such as All Bar One and Ember Inns.

And it is not only the big boys who are changing their game. Many smaller operators and individual landlords are showing true entrepreneurial flair in survival. A country pub near me in Surrey, The Red Barn at Blindley Heath, has been transformed by Geronimo Inns from a downmarket family pub into a gastropub and farm shop that serves “Aga breakfasts” and sells fresh local produce as well as having its own butcher's. Two Punch Taverns tenancies, The Kings Arms near Penrith and the Black Swan, near Selby, have introduced Post Office services for locals, while The Swan at Whitacre Heath, Warwickshire, has a pets' corner that is popular with families. Another Punch-owned tenancy, The Ropsley Fox, near Grantham, is providing school meals to a local school.

Just like corner shops, post offices, bakers and any other type of retailer, pubs are having to adapt to changing social mores. Once upon a time, industrial workers would head straight from the factory gate to the pub and slake their thirsts on several pints of ale. Those factories have long since closed. Men who once thought nothing of leaving their wives and families at home to spend evenings in the local are now sharing domestic responsibilities. If they go to the pub, it is to have a meal.

Where once going to the pub was seen as the principal leisure pursuit, today's consumers are just as likely to stay at home to watch a zillion channels on their home cinemas or sit at the computer on Facebook, MySpace or playing internet poker.

Long before the smoking ban became a factor, the introduction of more stringent drink-driving laws cut swaths through the pub trade. Then, as now, pub operators adapted to the changing trends and got on with the job of keeping the pub at the heart of society. We are a long way from having to call last orders for the British pub.

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