Thousands of pubs trading illegally
Thousands of pubs are still being forced to trade illegally as they wait for their correct premises licences to be delivered.
With the new licensing regime now into its seventh month, local authorities across the country are still failing to get their acts together.
According to the Licensing Act 2003, pubs must display their premises licence, or a summary of it, on site at all times or face a fine of up to £500.
But in a straw poll of eight pub companies carried out by The Publican in the week of the six-month anniversary of the new Licensing Act:
- Punch Taverns said it was still waiting for more than 1,600 licences across its 9,810-strong estate
- Greene King said 145 pubs across its tenanted and managed estates, which total 2,400 pubs, were still waiting for licences
- London brewer Fuller's said it was still waiting for 59 premises licences across its 363-pub estate
- Cardiff brewer Brains claims it is still waiting for 15 per cent of its licences.
None of the pubcos quizzed for the poll, which also included Mitchells & Butlers, New Century Inns, St Austell Brewery and Yesteryear Pub Company, said they had received all their premises licences.
Alistair Arkley, chairman of Teeside-based New Century Inns, said: "We have almost 10 per cent of our premises licences outstanding, some of which have been for nearly a year, since our application. Fifty per cent of the licences we have received have been incorrect and have had to be reissued."
Local authorities co-ordinating body LACORS claimed councils were still having problems due to the initial backlog of licensed premises applying for their licences just before last year's deadlines. "In some areas they still haven't been able to catch up with the backlog," said a spokeswoman.
"But licensees should have been given notification that their application has been passed, even if they don't have the full documentation."
Nick Mann, spokesman for the Local Government Association (LGA), said the LGA was "aware of the issue", and claimed that many council officers had been working through the night trying to get premises licences out.
"The new Licensing Act is still placing a real strain on councils. But councils are doing what they can," he said.
"Even though these pubs are technically in breach of the terms of the Act, in effect no-one is going to act against them."
The Association of Chief Police Officers said enforcement was a matter for individual police forces.
Disorder
The pub companies reported an encouraging picture of life under the new regime, with staggered closing contributing to a general cut in disorder so far.
Philip Lay, retail director at Cardiff brewer SA Brain, said: "The police and the Welsh Assembly recognise that drink-related disorder has reduced significantly since the introduction of variable trading hours."
Fuller's retail director Simon Emeny added: "Across the industry, the situation seems to have improved."
Francis Patton, customer services director at Punch, said: "With staggered pub closing times customers are no longer being forced onto the streets together every night at 11pm, having a beneficial effect by minimising disruption."
The Publican says
Despite the scaremongering ahead of last year's switch to the new licensing regime, pubs got their licence applications in on time, ensuring that fears they would be forced to close were unfounded.
The trade delivered on its side of the bargain and the vast majority of pubs are fulfilling all their obligations under the new Act. Councils, plainly, haven't, and using the fact that there was a last-minute flurry of applications last year as an excuse for not getting their licences out more than six months later, as LACORS has, is feeble in the extreme.
Only when every piece of the Licensing Act jigsaw is in place will licensees feel they can stop looking over their shoulder, and start looking ahead to the long-heralded benefits of the new regime.
