Licensing charges

Our team delivers high quality work in all matters relating to straight forward licensing.

We have four members of the team who may work on your matter. Regardless of who works on your matter, they will be supervised by James Whiteley, who is the Partner in charge of our commercial department.

• James Whiteley, Partner

When businesses apply for a new premises license or vary a premises licence to allow those premises to be used for one or more licensable activities, the fee cannot always be in the form of a fixed fee.

An average or range of costs can be provided instead. A normal range of costs are set out below based on hourly charge out rates ranging between £200 to £400 plus VAT and disbursement costs:

Our fees and pricing do not include VAT. When applicable, VAT will be applied at the rate of 20%. VAT is charged at the standard rate the details of which are found here:

 VAT rates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Not all parts of the search pack attract VAT.

• For your information we use the term ‘disbursements’ to mean any costs or expenses paid or to be paid to a third party on behalf of a client (including any VAT element) except for office expenses such as postage and courier fees. Simple application: £1,250–£1,500 plus VAT and disbursements
• Disbursements are not likely to exceed £500 but the application fee to the local authority varies between £100 and £1,905 depending on the rateable value of the property.

• The fee includes:

  • Taking your instructions and advising you as to how you can promote the licensing objectives within your application.
  • Advising you as the type of plans you are required to submit with your application.
  • Completing the application form for a new premises license (including the operating schedule) in accordance with your instructions and submitting this to the local licensing authority alongside suitable plans.
  • Providing guidance on the fee levels payable to the licensing authority.
  • Preparing copies of the premises license application for disclosure to the responsible authorities and serving copies of the application on the responsible authorities.
  • Drafting the notices advertising the premises license application and submitting the notice to the local newspaper.
  • Arranging with you for you to display the notice(s) advertising the premises license application and advising as to where and how this should be done by you in order to comply with the requirements of the Licensing Act 2003.
  • Providing a Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) consent form for signature by a personal license holder proposed by yourself.
  • Checking the licence once granted and correcting any errors with the licensing authority.

• The fee does not include:

  • Obtaining suitable plans.
  • Attending pre-consultation meetings with the Licensing Authority or Responsible Authorities, nor their fee for this meeting.
  • Dealing with or advising you in relation to queries or representations received from either the responsible authorities or other interested parties.
  • Advising on varying the license.
  • If representations are received and attendance and representation at a licensing sub-committee is required then we will provide a separate fee estimate for this work which will be charged at an hourly rate.