English Devolution and Licensing

Some things will take a long time but have the potential for significant change without a fanfare announcement, the English Devolution White Paper has been presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and this may be one of those things.

Most of the commentary is about the new Mayoral areas but so far, the Mayors who have been Elected have had no power to look at licensing, although in places such as Manchester we are seeing an active interest by the Mayor (Andy Burnham) in the Night Time Economy.

However, there is also the review of Local government reorganisation.

The government are inviting proposals from all remaining 2-tier areas and those unitary councils as to reorganisation on the basis of evidence of failure or their size or boundaries may be hindering their ability to deliver sustainable and high-quality services to their residents.

If such changes occur, then some historic licensing authorities will disappear and the new entity will need to take over the licensing authority role. If a new type of local governance is created the Licensing act 2003 may have to be amended to allow such a new entity to be permitted to execute duties under the Licensing Act. Whatever the entity the change will trigger new statements of licensing policy and potentially re-awaken conversations around cumulative impact areas/policies and late night levies.

We will keep you updated