The Head of Planning and Regulatory Services has submitted a report to seek agreement of the licence fees for 2025/26 where the Council has discretion over the level of fee charged.

Recommendation(s): That the General Purposes Licensing Committee resolves to:

1.    Agree the licence fees and charges for 2025/26 as set out in the Appendix 1 and recommend them to Council.

The Head of Planning and Regulatory Services had submitted a report to seek agreement of the licence fees for 2025/26 where the Council has discretion over the level of fee charged. 

The Business Regulation Team Manager presented the report to the Committee, outlining the purpose to seek agreement for the fees and charges for the year 2025/2026. The Committee were directed to appendix 1, containing details of the proposed changes to the fees and charges. The Committee were informed that minor increases have been applied to cover the Licensing Authority’s costs and inflationary pressures. The Committee also heard a summary of the license conditions relevant to the report.  

The Chair invited the Committee to ask questions.  

Councillor Ottino expressed dissatisfaction with the larger increases in this report compared to those within the General Purposes Licensing report and queried whether inflation was the only driving factor behind this. He requested an explanation of the 400% increase. Councillor Muddiman and the Chair shared these concerns.  

The Business Regulation Team Manager confirmed that in the year 2021/22 there were no increases, but that in consecutive years they have be increases which have averaged to around 4.2% over the last five years. It was explained that the increase in this report is to ensure lower fees in previous years are made up for, and that a debt provision project team has been established to ensure that the current level of 0 debt is maintained. The Business Regulation Team also predicted that a lower increase would be proposed next year. 

Councillor Muddiman sought further clarity on the 400% increase noted within the report to which the Business Regulation Team Manager explained was an anomaly as the fee is attached to a 2-year period for renewal meaning the cost of a licence is split across two years. In the past the renewal period was for 1 year (£100.00) whereas now it would be for 2-year period (£350.00) a modest increase of (£75.00 per year). New applications are charged at £500.00. 

The Chair sought to confirm that the charges, as proposed, seek to only cover costs and are not revenue generating. This was confirmed by the Business Regulation Team Manager. 

Councillor Ottino again queried why the fees in this report have a much higher percentage increase in comparison other reports, considering that the effects of Covid applied universally. The Business Regulation Team Manager assured the Committee that this is the cost of managing the whole process of the function and explained that it would cover the resources and time required to manage street trading.  

Councillor Rehman sought clarity around whether the fees for specific licenses are applied across the department, or whether costs are isolated to specific categories of license. The Business Regulation Team Manager explained that these fees only apply to licences and fees which fall under the category of miscellaneous licensing.  

The Committee resolved to: 

• Agree the licence fees and charges for 2025/26 as set out in the Appendix 1 and recommend them to Council.