General Purposes and Licensing Committee – 10 January 2025
Licensing Fees and Charges 2025 – 2026
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Purpose |
For decision |
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Classification |
Public |
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Executive Summary |
This report presents the proposed fees and charges for the Council’s licensing functions. They have been reviewed and set at a level calculated to cover the cost of delivering the services. The committee is asked to consider and recommend approval of the fees and charges for 2025-26 as listed in Appendix 1. |
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Recommendations |
1. That the General Purposes and Licensing Committee recommend that Council approves the proposed fees and charges for the financial year 2025–26 as set out in Appendix 1.
2. That the power to set the scale of fees and charges for Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licences, including to consider any objections made in respect of the proposed fees, be delegated to the General Purposes and Licensing Committee.
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Reasons for recommendation(s) |
The local authority is able to recover the costs associated with undertaking its licensing functions, where these fees are not statutorily set. The cost of providing these functions has been fully costed, and proposed fees have been adjusted where necessary. Where appropriate, new fees have been added to reflect the costs associated with the issue of licenses under new legislation. Additionally, in some cases the way in which fees are charged has been amended to better reflect the way in which applications are received and administered. |
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Ward(s) |
All |
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Portfolio Holder(s) |
Cllr Dan Poole |
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Strategic Director(s) |
Richard Knott – Strategic Director of Housing & Communities |
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Officer Contact |
Ben Stockley Food and Safety Team Manager 023 8028 5348
Christa Ferguson Licensing Manager 023 8028 5352
Joanne McClay Service Manager – Environmental and Regulation 023 8028 5325 |
Introduction
1. As part of the annual review of budgets, decisions are required by the General Purposes and Licensing Committee, to agree any non-statutory licensing fees and charges for the forthcoming financial year.
2. This report details the proposed fees and charges in Appendix 1 for licences and registrations for 2025 - 2026 for the following work areas – animal welfare licensing, caravan site licensing, skin piercing registrations, gambling, pleasure boats, boatmen and pavement licences.
3. The Council has a statutory responsibility for the administration and enforcement of a wide range of licences, registrations and permits. Many of these allow the Council to set and charge a fee, to cover the costs of the administration and issue of these permissions.
4. The basis in setting these fees is to ensure they are reasonable and cover the costs of performing the functions which includes, administration, officer costs for undertaking inspections, testing and hearings. Costs associated with enforcement activity, for example relating to premises which are operating without a licence, or breach of licence conditions cannot be included in the license fee.
5. Furthermore, legal cases such as Hemming v Westminster City Council have confirmed that licensing fees may not be used to generate a profit for Councils and that fees should be reviewed regularly to ensure that neither a significant surplus nor deficit is created.
6. Fees set under the Licensing Act 2003, are set centrally by Government and the Council has no discretion to review or amend these. The current fee structure was set when the Act came into force in November 2005 and the fee regime has not been revised since this date.
7. The Council is, however, able to set fees for the following licence types:
· pavement licences.
· gambling establishments.
· animal welfare (boarding, home boarding, dog breeding, riding establishments, pet shops and zoos).
· residential caravan sites.
· skin piercing (tattooing, acupuncture, electrolysis, cosmetic piercing and semi-permanent skin colouring).
· pavement licences.
· pleasure boats (boatmen and vessels) and
· taxis and private hire (drivers, vehicles and operators)
Issues for consideration
8. The setting of discretionary fees for the licensing of the above matters, must be formally approved by the Council’s General Purposes and Licensing Committee before they may be applied.
9. The Taxi Licensing Policy has been reviewed following a consultation process on new proposals and an amended draft policy is to be considered by the General Purposes and Licensing Committee on 10 January 2025. Once approved, any new process requirements will need to be reviewed and built into the assessment for the cost recovery of issuing these licences. Taxi licensing fees will therefore be consulted on after approval of the policy by Council therefore they are not proposed to change at this time.
10. The proposed fees for licences and permits in Appendix 1 have been increased following a detailed review of the cost to deliver each function and have also been benchmarked against similar and neighbouring local authorities.
Pavement Licences
11. The Business and Planning Act 2020 (BPA) provided temporary permissions following the covid pandemic, which allowed businesses such as public houses, cafes, bars and restaurants to place chairs and tables over part of the highway adjacent to their premises.
12. This Act has since been amended by the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 which introduced a permanent pavement licensing scheme from 31 March 2024. Fees for the application can be set locally but are capped at a maximum of £500 for first time applications and £350 for renewals. The proposed new fees in Appendix 1 are for full cost recovery of this application process.
Gambling fees
13. All permits and lottery fees set under the Gambling Act 2005 are statutorily set, whereas gambling premises licence fees are capped, with the discretion for fee setting up to this level. These gambling premises licences have been increased in line with inflation.
Animal welfare fees
14. Animal welfare licensing fees have been reviewed and increased where required and the fee structure revised, to recover all costs relating to the processing and issue of different licence types. New applications for all animal welfare applications have been costed at a higher level than renewal licences, based on additional officer time in providing advice and assistance during the initial licensing process.
Skin piercing fees
15. Skin piercing registration fees have been reviewed and a further breakdown of registration options provided for customers, which better represent the costs of the different application processes. The two additional fee categories are:
· A combined cost for a practitioner and premises registration in one single application,
· A cost for registering additional practitioners, when applied for at the same time as a premises/practitioner application.
16. The fee for a practitioner application alone has been substantially increased. This proposed fee covers the full costs of administering such an application when there is no premises application. It is important to note, that as with all skin piercing fees, this is a one-off fee.
17. The fee for a business to be registered to undertake additional skin piercing activities has also been increased, to reflect the full cost of administering this service.
Caravan sites fees
18. Caravan site fees have also been raised to reflect the increased cost of delivering the service.
19. Theme:
Empowering our residents to live healthy, connected and fulfilling lives.
Future New Forest. Transforming tomorrow, together.
20. Corporate Plan Objective:
Protect and improve the health and wellbeing of our communities. 
Being financially responsible.
21. Service Objective:
Implementation of the Environmental and Regulation Service Plans.
Consultation undertaken
22. This report has been reviewed by EMT and the Portfolio Holder prior to consideration by the General Purposes and Licensing Committee.
Financial and resource implications
Legal implications
Risk Assessment
25. A formal risk assessment is not required.
Environmental / Climate and nature implications
26. There are no direct climate implications.
Equalities implications
27. There are no direct equalities implications.
Crime and disorder implications
28. There are no direct crime and disorder implications.
Data protection / Information governance / ICT implications
29. There are no direct implications.
Conclusions
30. The setting of the proposed licensing fees and charges has been through a rigorous process, to cost the delivery of the service to businesses and members of the public.
31. The increased fees are proposed to take effect from 1 April 2025.