Covid 19 - What you need to know - Licence fees

In these unprecedented times and with enormous financial pressures placed on the leisure industry, even small steps may well help licensed premises be able to stay afloat, even for a little bit longer whilst everyone waits with baited breath for a Government announcement to really get to the heart of aiding an industry facing an existential crisis.

What immediate steps might licensing authorities therefore be able to take to slightly ease the burden?

Annual fees

One such step might be to delay the suspension of any premises licences that might be late on making annual fee payments.

Now, the law currently allows no discretion ultimately to waive the fee as licensing authorities “must” suspend a licence. Some threaten to do so as soon as soon as the 21 day grace period elapses whereas others take a much more practical approach only seeking suspension months down the line.

Accordingly, there is nothing preventing licensing authorities sending out their suspension letters for non-payment but citing the suspension date as 6 or even 12 months in the future.

Late Night Levy fees

If you read our Propel opinion piece on late night levies you may recall our view that either the Government needed to speed through the late night levy reforms previously identified or look to abolish them altogether.

Clearly, the former is not going to happen anytime soon so with the extra financial burden they place on licensed premises perhaps the latter should be reviewed – particularly to help the industry going forward as the negative effects of the current climate will likely be far reaching for some time.

At the very least, licensing authorities do not need to wait for Government intervention on this to take action as each licensing authority could urgently review the need for its Levy and consider urgently cancelling it.

It is welcome to hear that the London Borough of Redbridge has seemingly indefinitely deferred the proposal to adopt a Levy. Although the reasons for doing so are not known it is hard to believe that the current economic situation is not a factor. Hopefully other licensing authorities will consider steps they can undertake as well.

Every little helps and ultimately we are all in this together.