Islington Council outlines plans to introduce late-night levy

The levy, which is set to come into force as part of the Police Reform & Social Responsibility Act in October, will allow local councils to collect a fee from premises which are authorised to sell alcohol between midnight and 6am.

The money raised will be split between local councils and police and is meant to fund policing the night-time economy in the areas where the levy is applied.

Pubs could have to pay anywhere between £299 and £4,440 towards the levy depending on the rateable value of the premises.

Paul Convery, executive member for community safety at Islington Council, said that the London borough had a “problem” with crime and disorder related to its late-night establishments and that the levy will “help meet the costs” of managing the problem.

“We’ve got a particular problem in Islington because we have licensed over the last 10 years a very large number of places of entertainment,” said Convery.

“We’ve got a lot of crime and disorder, a lot of mess on our streets, we’ve got more late-night establishments per head of population than almost anywhere else in London and we just think we have to find ways of meeting the costs.”

“We went through a phase where we thought, as a borough, that the late night economy was a good thing.

“We’re now coming to the conclusion that it’s got some very high costs and real problems associated with it. We think some of those costs have to be borne by business.”

A consultation on the levy will take place before a final decision is made by the Council.

Earlier this year, Woking Borough Council had to withdraw its own consultation on the late-night levy after being accused of “jumping the gun” on the measure.