Licensing committee at Camden approves plans for late night levy

Islington Council and the City of London Corporation are the only London councils to have introduced a levy so far.

Camden’s licensing committee this week approved a scheme with the following features:

• The late night supply period will be midnight to 6 am.
• The council will exempt premises from paying the levy if the premises is authorised to supply alcohol for consumption on the premises between midnight and 6am on 1 January in every year (but are not authorised at those times on any other day in any year).
• The council will apply a reduction of 30% for qualifying premises which are subject to Small Business Rate Relief as defined in regulation 5(1)(b) of The Late Night Levy (Expenses, Exemptions and Reductions) Regulations 2012.
• The council will apply a reduction of 30% for qualifying business-led best practice schemes as defined in regulation 5(1)(a) of The Late Night Levy (Expenses, Exemptions and Reductions) Regulations 2012, if the premises are members of a Business Improvement District (BID).
• The council will not apply any other exemptions or reductions.
• The council will pay 100% of the net amount of the levy payments to the Mayors’ Office for Policing and Crime on the agreed understanding that the full revenue amount is retained and used in Camden.
• The council will allow licence holders to vary their licence free of charge if they wish to avoid operating in the late night supply period. Applications must be received no later than two months after the date on which the levy is introduced.

The full council at Camden will meet in January to consider whether to ratify the levy.