Government review looks to reform licensing rules to boost hospitality sector

A fast-track review is seeking to hear views of pubs, bars, venues, and their communities on planned updates to licensing rules.

The government’s Call for Evidence exercise looks to explore ways to make it easier for the sector to serve food outside, host live music, or avoid being closed down altogether by noise complaints.

The review will focus on key recommendations from the Government’s Licensing Taskforce, with particular emphasis on streamlining on-trade alcohol licensing for hospitality venues. The recommendations made by the Licensing Taskforce are:

• creation of a National Licensing Policy Framework
• an ‘amnesty’ to modernise and streamline licences
• improve the proportionality and evidential basis of licensing hearings and appeals
• remove local newspaper advertising requirement
• improve licensing process and conditions for outdoor areas
• increase entitlement maximum for Temporary Event Notices
• a sunset clause on blanket hours
• clearer evidential standards and structured mechanisms for objections and reviews
• reviewing the licence length and fees for festivals and events
• strengthening the ‘agent of change’ principle

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

“This review is about cutting red tape, boosting footfall, and making it easier for venues to put on the kind of events that bring people together. When our locals do well, our economy does too.“

Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said:

“[T]his review will help us cut through the red tape that has held back our brilliant hospitality sector, giving them the freedom to flourish while keeping communities safe. That is the balance we’re trying to strike.

“We’re determined to back small businesses and bring the buzz back to our high streets.”

Nick Mackenzie, co-chair of the Licensing Taskforce and CEO at Greene King, said:

“Modernising the licensing system is a vital step towards reducing the red-tape that has stifled businesses for too long. Swift consultation on the Licensing Taskforce’s recommendations is key and we urge the Government and industry to work together to ensure changes made at pace to address the challenges of running a modern hospitality business.

“Pubs are faced with continued rising costs, placing them under enormous pressures which is why the Government must continue to back the sector, including critical reforms on business rates which would unlock opportunities for pubs to invest and help drive economic growth.“