A temporary licensing easement which allowed hospitality businesses to make use of pavement space outside of their premises is to end on 31st March, the government has announced.
The previous government launched a consultation — which ran from 16th May to 11th July last year — that gave three options to maintain these easements on a more long-term basis.
There were 67 complete responses, from licensing authorities, trade organisations, and residents’ organisations, as well as members of the public. The majority of these respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with all three options proposed so the government felt it had no option but to end the off-sales measure on 31st March and revert to the pre-Covid position.
However, a government spokesperson said: “While the government must accept the results of the consultation exercise conducted under the previous administration, we are disappointed that there was not a consensus in favour of retaining an easement from which many pubs and pubgoers have benefited, and which supports our objectives both to promote the growth of the UK economy, and specifically to support the nation’s pub trade.
“We therefore want to make it as simple as possible for those pubs who wish to continue making off-sales to secure the licensing permission to do so from their local authorities.
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“To that end, the government will be amending the guidance made under section 182 of the Licensing Act to advise licensing authorities that — where businesses have been benefiting from the current easement and wish to continue making off-sales beyond April 2025 — applications to amend a licence should be treated as minor variations. This process is quicker and cheaper than major licence variations and, for example, does not require a local newspaper advertisement.”
A spokesperson for the British Beer and Pub Association said: “On behalf of our members, who account for approximately 20,000 pubs across the UK, we supported options that would have made the temporary easement permanent, so we are incredibly disappointed at government’s decision.
“We have seen no evidence that this easement has created any widespread issues since it was introduced. Instead, it helped to boost trade for pubs and therefore the economy as a whole, so this move will layer yet more cost and administrative burdens on pubs and local authorities.
“We would urge the prime minister to reconsider the impact of this move because it will undermine their growth mission and create more red tape.”
