The new (increased) fees have now been announced.

Details of the new fee structure, which follows a consultation with key stakeholders and is now subject to Parliamentary procedures, include:

A £100 to £635 one-off payment for a new licence a rise on the previous proposal of £80 to £500.

£70 to £350 for an annual fee up from £40 to £225.
The largest town and city centre pubs paying two to three times as much for their initial application fee and annual charge.

£37 for a personal licence

£21 for a temporary event notice.

Under the current system, licencees pay £30 every three years to magistrates for a basic licence to serve alcohol until 11pm, regardless of the size of the venue.

Under the new system, the largest city or town centre pubs would pay a £1,905 initial application fee and a £1,050 annual fee.

The fees will recover the licensing authorities' costs of administrating, inspecting and enforcing the new regime.

Full details at .........

http://www.culture.gov.uk/global/press_notices/archive_2005/dcms005_05.htm?month=January&properties=archive%5F2005%2C%2Fglobal%2Fpress%5Fnotices%2Farchive%5F2005%2F%2C

or

http://tinyurl.com/3q26k

I am a little surprised at the tone of alomost pride in announoucing this huge increase from the current situtaion. Those that have to pay it will not much like the increase or the tone. But I suppose that the majority of us do not have to pay directly. However, I suspect that we will all be paying indirectly.......

Those of us who rely on pubs for our live music will just have to get used to being kicked around as a political football.