Ashtons Legal are required to provide price information to businesses in relation to applying for a new premises licence or to vary a premises licence to allow those premises to be used for one or more licensable activities.
Our licensing application work is completed by Tim Ridyard, who is a partner at Ashtons Legal.
This information is limited to two types of applications – applications for a premises licence under Section 17 of the Licensing Act 2003 and applications to vary a premises licence under Section 34 of the Licensing Act 2003. Applications not mentioned here will generally be costed as a simple application.
We cannot provide the total cost of the service in the form of a fixed fee, but are able to provide a range of costs instead. For example:
- Simple application: £750 – £1000 (based on 3-4 hours at an hourly rate of £250 plus VAT)
- Medium complexity: £1000 – £1750 (based on 4-5 hours at an hourly rate of £250 plus VAT)
- High complexity: £1750 – £3000 (based on 5- 12 hours at an hourly rate of £250 plus VAT).
To assist you to determine whether your application is a simple application or one of medium or high complexity some of the following factors, affecting complexity, will need to be considered.
These may include whether there is a cumulative impact policy in place, the type and size of the premises, or whether it is in a residential area. A large scale public event will always be regarded as of high complexity.
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 licence (including the operating schedule) in accordance with your instructions and submitting this to the local licensing authority alongside suitable plans. You must provide suitable plans.
- Providing guidance on the fee levels payable to the licensing authority.
- Preparing copies of the premises licence application for disclosure to the responsible authorities and serving copies of the application on the responsible authorities.
- Drafting the notices advertising the premises licence application and submitting the notice to the local newspaper.
- Arranging with you for you to display the notice(s) advertising the premises licence 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 licence 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 licence
- attendance and representation at a licensing sub-committee hearing of the responsible authority. 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.
There are additional costs (to the above) payable for submitting and advertising the application. The application fee is based on the rateable value of the property. Application fees range from £100 to £1,905, depending on the fee band of your venue. If your premises doesn’t have a rateable value it will fall into the lowest fee band.
Disbursements
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as the application fee. We will pay the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
- Application fee (payable to licensing authority) £100 to £1905* for a new application. A minor variation costs £89.
- Advertising fee £100-£300*
- Enquiry agent fees to display public notices £100 – £150*
- Special delivery fee to serve the application £6.50 to £18.36
- Printing additional copies of plans if necessary: 25p for A4 to 50p for A3
* These fees vary depending on the individual premises and where it is located. The fees can, on occasion, be higher than the ranges given above. We will give you an accurate figure for each item as soon as we are able to do so.
How long will my application take?
Matters usually take 4-6 weeks from receipt of full instructions from you. This is on the basis of the application being relatively straightforward and you being able to provide all the necessary documents promptly. If your matter is more complex, for example, if there is substantial opposition from interested parties, or if there is a delay in receiving the documents we need, it may take longer.