Brown to give councils power to ban "24-hour drinking

Prime Minister Gordon Brown today has vowed to give councils the power to "ban 24-hour drinking" in an area for "the interests of local people".

Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton, the Prime Minister said the licensing regime had worked in many areas but was "not working in some places".

"We thought that extended hours would make our city centres easier to police and in many areas it has," he said. "But it's not working in some places and so we will give local authorities the power to ban 24 hour drinking throughout a community in the interests of local people."

However only a small minority of pubs have 24-licences and those that do rarely open around-the-clock. According to the Department for Culture Media and Sport just 10 per cent of 24-hour licences - 640 in total - are pubs, bars and nightclubs.

Brown also said pubs and clubs would be made to pay to help deal with the problems they cause in town centres to make an area safe - echoing the idea of alcohol disorder zones, which no council has yet to take up.

Brown also called for drinking banning orders to be used against offenders.

He also confirmed that ID cards will not be compulsory and that the mimum wage level will continue to rise.

The Home Office and Department for Communities and Local Government have so far been unable to confirm whether the "24-hour drinking" clampdown or forcing to pubs to pay for cleaning up are new measures.