The city council has approved plans to give night-time businesses across Nottingham a lifeline and scrap a levy on those which serve alcohol after midnight. The 'Late Night Levy' currently means venues must pay to remain open and trade in the city after midnight, having first been introduced back in 2014.
The charges differ depending on the size of a venue, with Band A venues being charged £299 a year, while Band E venues are charged £1,495. There are an additional two venues in 'Band E plus', the largest of venues, which are charged £4,440 annually. However, the levy is now set to be scrapped from October 31, after a full Nottingham City Council meeting which takes place next month.
The levy was first introduced by the council in 2014 to try to help offset the cost of policing the so-called 'night-time economy'. Upon implementation in 2014, however, the Business Improvement District (BID) was provided with an exemption, meaning that all licenced premises covered by the BID area would not have to pay the levy. £133,851 was generated between November 2020 and October 2021 through the levy.
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There are currently 144 Premises in the city boundary that are liable to pay the levy, which are businesses that operate after midnight and are not BID members - 48 of these operate in the city centre with an NG1 postcode while 96 are located outside of the city centre.
Melanie Bird, licensing compliance manager at Nottingham City Council, told a licensing committee meeting on Monday (August 8): "The fact is that this levy is disproportionately affecting businesses outside the city centre which are more likely to be family owned, single premises rather than a franchise. The covid pandemic highlighted the financial pressures on businesses and this approach would aim to reduce that burden."
As well as bars and pubs, the council said other businesses such as petrol stations were being made to pay the levy. More than 100 premises that pay to be members of the Business Improvement District are exempt from paying the levy as the BID has its own plans to tackle late-night anti-social behaviour.
The council currently gets 30 percent of the income generated from the scheme, with the other 70 percent being given to the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner, who expressed concerns regarding safety if the scheme was scrapped.
Nottinghamshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner [PCC] Caroline Henry has spoken out against plans to scrap it, saying she was worried problems such as anti-social behaviour and football violence could increase if the levy was taken away. The money has been spent on overtime for police officers and on the cost of nine of the council’s community protection officers.
She said: "I am very concerned that, while its revocation might yield a short-term benefit, it would be deeply harmful in the longer term and would stymie our collective efforts in ensuring the vibrant night time economy of Nottingham city is enabled to be as safe and inclusive as possible, for our women and girls, and the more vulnerable residents in our communities."
It was found that there had been some years, pre-dating the current PCC's tenure, in which the levy was either not spent at all or had not been fully spent.
Mrs Henry said she had noted that the late night levy amounts collected in previous years had not been fully utilised and therefore commissioned an independent study on how to use late night levy funding to improve safety in the city centre night time economy after she was elected in 2021.
“I wanted to ensure this pot of money that was available when I came into office was spent in the right way, consulting with all relevant local partners. My key objective is that we have an amount of money which needs to be spent, and it is right that the money should be redistributed back into the city council area to support enhancement to community safety, based on best evidence,” she said.
“The recommendations of the study were published last month and included funding a permanent multiagency ‘safe space’, expanding CCTV coverage, taxi marshals and enhanced enforcement.”
Superintendent Kathryn Craner, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "The removal of measures to prevent saturation of licensed premises, plus removal of the Late Night Levy contribution, could reduce the partnership opportunity to put additional safety measures in place to reduce ASB and violence associated with alcohol consumption."
The council, however, argued that the crime commissioner received grant funding of £237.2m in 2021/2022 and is expected to receive £250.2m, an additional £13 million, for the period 2022/2023. This will ensure extra officers are employed.
In the city centre, people said they supported the decision and more should be done to help businesses after the hardships of Covid. Mike Cindall, 55, from Bulwell, told Nottinghamshire Live: "I wasn't aware that they had to pay a levy, I think that is very harsh.
"After everything they've had to put up with I'm glad the council is scrapping it, they've got enough to worry about. We're talking about businesses which had to completely shut and then deal with all the restrictions, it's not been easy for them. So it sounds great in theory."
Retired teacher Diana Youngs, 62, said: "Anything to help local businesses will get my support. So many places have closed down because of Covid so we need to do everything we can to keep the ones still going open. If its true that it's mostly affecting family businesses, then I can't see a lot of benefit to it."
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