{"id":343750,"date":"2025-12-14T13:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T13:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/two-cheers-for-licensing-review\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T13:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T13:10:11","slug":"two-cheers-for-licensing-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=343750","title":{"rendered":"Two Cheers for Licensing Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>There has been much coverage in the press &#8211; almost all of it sensational &#8211; in the past few days about the Government&#8217;s proposals to review and modernise the laws which govern licensing.\u00a0 The laws and rules have not been looked at in any great depth since the Licensing Act of 2003 which at the time was thought rather revolutionary and far-reaching, but is now seen as restrictive and over officious.<\/p>\n<p>The new Labour Government set up a working group to look at how to reduce barriers in the licensing system and to examine and propose changes. It included UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls, British Beer &amp; Pub<br \/>\nAssociation chair Nick Mackenzie and Night-Time Industries Association<br \/>\nCEO Michael Kill.<\/p>\n<p>The proposals are well laid out in the trade paper the <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.morningadvertiser.co.uk\/Article\/2025\/10\/09\/government-calls-on-pubs-for-evidence-on-licensing-reform\/\">Morning Advertiser<\/a><\/i><\/b> which is linked.\u00a0 Most seem sensible and non-controversial. My comments in italics:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A one-time (twentieth anniversary) licensing condition \u2018amnesty\u2019 to modernise and streamline licences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <i>Seems sensible<\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hearings<br \/>\n and appeals \u2013 various recommendations, including a strengthening of the<br \/>\n objections procedure to prevent unnecessary and unsubstantiated<br \/>\nobjections<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<i>About time. Too many objections are given too much weight in decision making<\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Remove the hard-copy local newspaper advertising requirement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<i> Clearly outdated and outrageously expensive to no real purpose\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Improve<br \/>\n the potential for licensed premises to better use their outside spaces<br \/>\nby removing regulatory barriers, improving licensing decisions,<br \/>\nsimplifying processes, and achieving greater consistency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i>\u00a0Rather than protect outside space from unwarranted intrusion, this has been used as a stick with which to stop businesses using available space and for local authorities to exercise their\u00a0 predilection for pettiness<\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase<br \/>\n the maximum entitlement for Temporary Event Notices (TENs) for licensed<br \/>\n premises (that is those with existing premises licences) to help<br \/>\ngenerate new opportunities for existing businesses.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <i>Sensible. This applies to premises only, not to personal licences which have different conditions<\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u2018Sunset clause\u2019 on blanket hours and other policies<br \/>\n to avoid situations where a restrictive policy is put in place to deal<br \/>\nwith a specific issue, but the policy in effect runs forever or is<br \/>\ncontinually renewed using the original out of date evidence base\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <i>This is so obvious.<\/i><i>\u00a0What happened and was appropriate years ago is often automatically included<span>\u00a0<\/span>for the future, despite circumstances changing<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Other measures will include a review of licensing fees,<br \/>\nextended blanket hours for specific local events, a review of the<br \/>\nlate-night levy and removal of early morning restriction orders. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-end=\"493\" data-start=\"145\">So far, so sensible. Reviewing legislation from time to time is only logical &#8211; laws need to evolve with the world they govern. Few could deny that pubs today are operating in a very different landscape to 2003, when the current Licensing Act became law. And that Act itself came after years of consultation in what already feels like another era.<\/p>\n<p data-end=\"1154\" data-start=\"495\">What\u2019s striking in this latest review is the number of gentle digs at Local Authorities and their often cautious stance on change. Naturally, that\u2019s not what the headlines focused on. Even the BBC led with \u201clonger opening hours\u201d and the predictable link to anti-social behaviour. Meanwhile, pub owners across social media were quick to point out what\u2019s <em data-end=\"856\" data-start=\"848\">really<\/em> hurting the trade &#8211; and they\u2019re right. Soaring inflation, rising wages, shifting consumer habits, higher taxes, sky-high utility costs, the cost-of-living crisis, and unfair competition from supermarkets all pile pressure on an already stretched industry \u2014 and that\u2019s just the start of the list.<\/p>\n<p data-end=\"1464\" data-start=\"1156\"><b>Still, the review itself is a step in the right direction. Although\u00a0<em data-end=\"1232\" data-start=\"1218\">The Guardian<\/em>\u00a0focused wrongly on \u201cPubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth\u201d &#8211;\u00a0 those extra freedoms will help. But real progress would mean tackling the everyday issues that make both running and visiting pubs increasingly uneconomic.<\/b><\/p>\n<p data-end=\"1647\" data-start=\"1466\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">When I say Local Authorities can be \u201ccautious,\u201d perhaps that\u2019s being kind. At times, they can be obstructive, unhelpful, even tone-deaf\u00a0 &#8211; though, to be fair, there are exceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-end=\"1647\" data-start=\"1466\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">There isn&#8217;t an end date for consultation, so don&#8217;t expect to see things change immediately.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There has been much coverage in the press &#8211; almost all of it sensational &#8211; in the past few days about the Government&#8217;s proposals to review and modernise the laws which govern licensing.\u00a0 The laws and rules have not been looked at in any great depth since the Licensing Act of 2003 which at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154882,100355,97133,166891,104564],"tags":[19051,16104,3749],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-343750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-legislation","category-opinion","category-press-coverage","category-pubs","tag-cheers","tag-licensing","tag-review"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - 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