Still Time for Reform

The Government's enthusiasm for reforming `outdated' licensing laws is undimmed, according to Andrew Cunningham, the civil servant who wrote the White Paper, Time for Reform, which proposes the most radical overhaul of the licensing system seen for many years and includes the possibility of 24 hour pub opening. Here, Andrew McNeill reviews the increasingly complicated politics of licensing reform.

Mr Cunningham, speaking at a conference mainly of local authority officials and town centre managers*, emphasised that licensing reform was a manifesto commitment of the Labour Government and that the White Paper was also welcomed by the main opposition parties.

However, despite being promised during the last general election campaign - famously, Labour Party HQ sent out text messages to potential supporters saying 'CLDNT GIVE A XXXX 4 LST ORDERS? VTE LBR ON THURSDY 4 EXTRA TIME' -the new Licensing and Entertainment Bill was, in the event, omitted from the Government's legislative programme outlined in the Queen's Speech, the priority being given to bills to improve public services. However, Mr Cunningham said, it remained the Government's intention to introduce the licensing bill at the earliest opportunity. This would probably be in the next Queen's Speech, which is scheduled for November or December 2002. Because of heavy demands on parliamentary time the competition is likely to be intense, but if the licensing bill is selected for inclusion it will probably receive the Royal Assent in the summer of 2003, although it will not become fully operational before well into 2004, as there will be a period of transition.

Mr Cunningham conceded that the Government still has a major 'selling job' to do on the bill as opinion polls show that public opinion is divided on the issue of licensing reform. Mr Cunningham may here have understated matters. The public opinion poll commissioned by IAS showed that the idea of pubs opening late into the night is opposed by a large majority. It was pointed out to Mr Cunningham by the representative of the Civic Trust at the conference that many residents' groups and others have already begun to organise a campaign to protect themselves against what they fear will be the harmful consequences of the Government's proposals for quality of life in town and city centres.

Moreover, opposition may not be restricted to residents' groups. Ironically, some sections of the licensed trade, the principal intended beneficiary of reform, have turned strongly against the package that the Government has in mind. An influential group within it have decided that the Government has double-crossed the trade and that the White Paper is 'rotten to the core'.

The Government's Philosophy

The starting point is the conviction of the great economic and social value of the alcohol and entertainment industry. Mr Cunningham described as 'extremists' those who paint the alcohol and hospitality industry as some kind of pariah, damaging local communities. The truth, he said, is that the industry is the mainstay of our local communities and our national economy. Mr Cunningham made no reference to the economic and social costs of alcohol problems, which are generally agreed to be enormous (see article State of the Nation).

"The revenue generated by alcohol sales helps to buy schools, hospitals, roads and policemen on the beat. And the industry provides jobs in every part of the country. 1 in 4 of all new jobs created are in tourism-related industries, and a lot of them are in hospitality and leisure."

Mr Cunningham's speech made it clear that one of the main motivations behind the Government's proposals is the wish to promote the tourist industry especially, he said, in view of the fact that, due to the combined impact of Foot and Mouth disease and the events of 11 September, it was facing its most serious crisis ever.

That the Government's proposals for licensing reform are primarily designed to encourage the entertainment industry and tourism, can hardly be disputed. Responsibility for liquor licensing has now been transferred from the Home Office to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department that sponsors the tourism industry, and the licensing and entertainment policy section is located in the Department's tourism division. However, the Government's view that the late night pub and club scene is vital for the health of the tourist industry, and vice versa, is not shared by everyone.

Others at the conference, notably Simon Milton, the leader of Westminster City Council, and who, presumably, fits Mr Cunningham's definition of an extremist, complained that the drunken mayhem associated with late night pubs and clubs is a major threat to the tourist industry in the West End rather than a condition of its success, a threat which Westminster City Council clearly believes will be exacerbated by the Government's intended reforms.

Moreover, on this issue Mr Cunningham's timing was unfortunate. Just as he was claiming that the late night entertainment industry was facing its worst ever crisis, the trade newspaper, The Publican, carried a report on how well this sector was doing, the profits of some major companies soaring. "The late-night market is as strong as ever," market analyst Douglas Jack was reported as saying. "The sector is not as dependent on tourism as people first thought."

The Context of Licensing Reform

Mr Cunningham explained that in the Government's view, it is vital that licensing reform is part of a broader process of social change to support the 24 hour economy. This should also involve the provision of improved transport systems, especially at night; better control of noise emanating from licensed premises; better public conveniences and street cleaning, and better policing, crime prevention and lighting strategies to ensure that people feel safe enough to make use of town and city centres.

While this part of Mr Cunningham's speech will be welcomed by critics of the Government's proposals, the point that many of them have wished to make is that in their view, the Government should ensure that these elements are in place before the licensing law is dismantled: merely saying that these things are desirable is not enough.

The Government versus the Trade

Important sections of the alcohol and entertainment industry have campaigned over many years for licensing reform, and the industry was clearly the major influence on the contents of the White Paper. The British Beer and Pub Association, formerly the Brewer's Society, roundly condemned the omission of the expected licensing reform bill from the Queen's Speech as a betrayal of pub-goers.

As the basic criticism of the White Paper by the public health lobby and residents' groups was that it favoured the interests of the licensed trade at the expense of everyone else, there is considerable irony in the viciousness of the attacks on the White Paper now being made by some trade spokesmen. But of course, their objection to it is not that the White Paper goes too far in their direction, but that it does not go nearly far enough.

Writing in a recent issue of The Magistrate, Stuart Neame, vice-chairman of brewers Shepherd Neame, complained of the trade having been 'double–crossed' by the Government and described the proposed Government bill as 'rotten to the core' and 'a looming disaster'. He condemned the bill as overly complex, bureaucratic and illiberal, and he quoted from an open letter he, the chairman of Wetherspoons and others had written to the Government urging it to introduce the reforms the trade want, such as longer hours, by modifying the existing system rather than by embarking on the wholesale restructuring proposed in the White Paper. This view contrasts strikingly with that formerly promoted by the trade as a whole that the present licensing system is so hopelessly out-of-date and impossibly complex that only a complete overhaul will do.

The trade's basic objection to the proposed bill is that it would give too much scope to interference from local authorities acting on behalf of residents and others having objections to late night opening or to other practices likely to cause disorder and disturbance. This is the basis of trade hostility to the Government's plan to transfer responsibility for liquor licensing from the magistrates to local authorities: local authorities, being elected and democratically accountable, will be too responsive to the needs of others than the minority of drinkers who form the mainstay of the late night economy.

According to Mr Cunningham, however, on this issue at least the trade is wasting its time. The decision to transfer responsibility to local authorities has been taken. The rest of the reform package, he said, is not on offer without local authority control because that is an essential part of modernising the licensing laws.

Mr Cunningham also outlined an additional and somewhat novel argument for the transfer. It is, he said, "an entirely C19th concept to expect legitimate businessmen to attend court to be granted permission to sell a perfectly respectable product." Mr Cunningham did not explain why it is only licences granted by courts that are inherently stigmatising. It remains to be seen if this line of argument will persuade the businessmen who service the 'Ibiza culture' that Simon Milton complained is having such an adverse effect on the West End to drop their opposition to licenses being granted by local authorities.

The Future

Where all this leaves the licensing reform agenda is not altogether clear. Mr Cunningham was at pains to emphasise that the main principles of the White Paper are no longer open to negotiation. Those who become stuck on the main framework issues, - the transfer of responsibility to local authorities, and longer hours,- will, he said, simply be left behind. The debate has already moved on.

Yet developments since the White Paper have made it very clear that the Government's reform proposals are not nearly so uncontroversial as it chooses to pretend. Opposition to them is building, and is not restricted to points of mere detail. The residents groups and others who have strong objections to various aspects of the White Paper are unlikely meekly to accept that the debate is already finished.

There is also the question of the national alcohol strategy. Perhaps the most conspicuous feature of Mr Cunningham's speech was the absence of any explicit reference to the strategy and to the interrelationships between it and the licensing reform agenda. Implicitly, however, Mr Cunningham's speech gave a clear indication of how limited the national alcohol strategy is likely to be.

From Mr Cunningham's speech, the Government's starting point appears to be its belief in the benign nature of alcohol products and of the industry that manufactures and sells them. Alcohol related problems are, it seems, restricted to a small minority of individuals. As Mr Cunningham expressed it, "Alcohol alters behaviour adversely in the case of some individuals. Those few can spoil the party and the community for the rest of us."

The crucial as well as obvious point this misses is the one that on this occasion was made by Simon Milton. But it is a point also made by people such as the leader of the licensed trade in Scotland who even Mr Cunningham would be reluctant to dismiss as extremists and anti-alcohol fanatics.

This is that there is now a destructive culture of intoxication and social incivility, mainly but not wholly based on the youth scene, that transcends individuals and which is fed and exacerbated by some of the marketing practices of the alcohol and entertainment industries. This culture and the problems to which it gives rise are likely to be given an additional boost by the very changes to the licensing law the Government has in mind. That is the real looming disaster.

* Managing Nightlife in Urban Areas. Landor Conferences. London. 27 November 2001.

Article by Andrew McNeil