Late Night Levy in London deferred due to administrative error

“It has been reported that last night the London Borough of Redbridge’s Full Council deferred the decision to adopt a Late Night Levy (Levy) due to an administrative error which resulted in an incorrect recommendation being contained within the report provided prior to the meeting.

Full Council met yesterday intending to decide on the whether to approve the Levy following Licensing Committee recommendations as to its adoption the previous week.

However, we understand the report provided to councillors contained an incorrect recommendation that the Ilford Business Improvement District (BID) should be exempt, when in fact the Licensing Committee recommendation was that it should not be. This was only rectified with a ‘correct’ report the day before the Full Council meeting.

Therefore to give ample time for the correct report to be reviewed the decision on adopting the Levy was deferred to the next Full Council meeting on 27 February 2020.

The Committee had recommended the Full Council introduce the Levy for Redbridge with an implementation date of 1st May 2020 (whether the deferred decision affects this proposed timeline is yet to be confirmed), and that the Levy applies to licensed premises permitted to sell alcohol between 12:01am to 06.00am. We understand no reductions or exemptions have been proposed, save for those premises permitted sale of alcohol on the morning of NYD only.

I will keep you posted on the outcome of the Full Council meeting next month. If the Levy is implemented, there will be a period in which premises can opt for a free minor variation to cut back permitted alcohol hours to midnight to avoid paying the Levy.

For operators in Redbridge, or in other areas where a Levy is either in place or being proposed, if you would like to understand how this may affect your business and the options available to you, please contact licensing solicitor Suraj Desor on s.desor@popall.co.uk or call 0115 953 8500 “