Greene King helps hosts meet reform

Greene King Pub Partners, the company's tenanted and leased division, has created an in-house licensing team to help tenants tackle the challenge of licensing reform. The team is solely responsible for co-ordinating and submitting all premises licence applications including application forms, operating statements, drawings and fees for Pub Partners' licensees. It will also offer advice with individual's personal licence applications. All operations staff have received training on the reforms by solicitors Bond Pearce and will visit all their pubs to help licensees complete the application for the premises licence. Each licensee is getting a briefing pack explaining all the changes. David Elliott, managing director of Greene King Pub Partners, said: "It is vitally important that these applications are submitted correctly to safeguard the businesses in question and ensure that the transition is stress free for the licensee and their customers. "The red tape licensees have to deal with means that they are often side-tracked from running their business so we know that this support will be important to them and an easy changeover." Pub Partners is meeting the total cost of all premises licence applications ­ including the premises licence fee, submitting the applications, providing the plans and funding all agreed hearings for objections ­ at a cost to the business of £1m. Elliott added: "It is in all our interests to get these licences granted the first time. It is a cost to the industry, the pubs and the customers if delays are encountered.