Nottingham police want late-night levy on city's pubs and clubs

The legislation introducing the late-night levy is set to come in alongside early morning restriction orders (EMROs) on 31 October as part of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act.

The levy is an annual fee which will be collected from all premises in a certain area which are authorised to sell alcohol between the hours of midnight and 6am.

Local councils will be able to implement the levy from June next year at the earliest, according to the Home Office, and they will have discretion over what hours between midnight and 6am it will apply.

The amount charged will vary from £200 to £4,400 depending on the rateable value of the premises, with the money collected to go towards additional night-time policing.

Jon Collins, chairman of Nottinghamshire Police Authority, said: “Despite the positive decline in offences of violence against the person it appears from recent data that still too many crimes involve alcohol and take place within the night-time economy.

“The Force invests a considerable amount of time and money into policing the areas around Nottinghamshire’s pubs and clubs and ensuring that the public remains safe but more proactive work needs to be undertaken to develop preventative strategies – not just cure – and we should not be afraid to get tougher on off-licences and licensed premises which bring forward unreasonable applications and persistently exacerbate the problem.

“Reducing alcohol-related crime should be a collective responsibility and the public, landlords, licensing authorities and the police all have a duty to promote a safer environment for our communities.”
 
Zack Wright, assistant manager at the Malt House, a licensed venue in Nottingham City Centre, said: “We will have to bring back our hours from 1am until midnight.

“We don’t trade much in our last hour anyway so it would make sense for us to do that, as we couldn’t afford to pay the levy.”

“This scatter-gun approach just isn’t the way to treat responsible operators,” said David Lucas, chairman of Nottingham’s business improvement district (BID) for leisure, We Are Nottingham.

He added: “Financially, a lot of businesses are struggling in the current economic climate and this will be yet more expenditure. A combination of exisiting measures which target those venues that cause problems is the best approach, and would send out the right message.

“Moreover, we see this is as a threat to existing BIDs because if premises have two levies to pay and one of them is compulsory, they will pay that one and stop paying the one which is voluntary.”