As to the tax/revenue aspects.

The following from Tery Redmond, who has a far better head for figures tham me. These are based on the White Paper Cost and Resources 13 para 135. http://www.culture.gov.uk/new_responsibilities/liclaw.html

The present cost of an annual PEL is between £50 and £20,000 pounds depending on the venue.(sounds good to the local authorities!)

The proposed cost is estimated at between £3,500 and £200,000 over a ten year period, the duration of the new PEL (or rather the personal liquor licence). (Hey, a 700% increase at the lower end - that sounds even better for the local authorities!)

And no increase for the big festival sites or major venues, so professional musicians and major organisers can support the change and save on inflation. (The more commercial the venue the more they save.)

In addition an annual premises inspection fee of between £50 and £150 pounds would be payable to the local authorities - at present free and part of the liquor licensing conditions-and the local authority will still be able to impose special conditions that could require expensive structural changes.

Add to this the cost of obtaining a personal AND a premises license (between £700 and £7000 for the same ten year period), legal fees incurred if the license was contested (estimated at a further £5000 average).

The White Papers own estimate of costs are £600 MILLION for all licensed premises over a ten year period with a further £1.5 BILLION to be spent by the licensing industry in training staff to comply with the proposed reforms.

There are currently 156000 licensed premises and 23000 clubs operating in England and Wales.179,000 in total, meaning the licensed entertainment sector must find £2,200,000 from it's PROFITS in order to stay in business. Averages around £200,000 each. The publican can can save money by opting out of the PEL portion.*

Now, Major venues are going to be able to afford this outlay and keep operating, but your local pub? It's going to cost them at least an additional £5000 pounds to have a few folkies singing once a week for the ten year period. That's without any alterations or legal objections and assuming that the local authority always charges the minimum fee........

I'm going to sink a couple while I can still afford them.

Terry

* The latest news from the DCMS, clarifying para 135, is that the fee for the premises licence will be set at the maximum figure, even if none of the (so-called) optional elements are requested.

The fee will have to be paid again for any change.