Late night city venue levy could be scrapped
BBCAn extra charge imposed on late night venues in a city could be cut in a bid to ease the burden on the struggling hospitality sector.
Since 2013, premises with a licence to sell alcohol between midnight and 06:00 in Newcastle have been subject to an annual levy ranging from £299 to £4,400, depending on their size and nature.
Funds raised are used for safety measures such as street marshals and CCTV, but there have been calls to scrap it to help venues hit by rising business rates, energy bills and other costs.
Newcastle City Council leader Karen Kilgour has said that the late night levy - which raised £242,000 in 2023/24 - is being put under review.
There have been a long list of closures announced in the city's nightlife scene over the past year, including Horticulture, Prohibition and The Mushroom.
This week chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a 15% cut to new business rate bills for pubs and live music venues, but industry leaders have complained that restaurants, cafes, and hotels facing similar problems will get no such help.
Kilgour told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I think there is a conversation to be had about what it provides and fully understanding all of the additionality that it provides.
"I do think it is important to recognise some really good services that this relatively small amount of money supports and helps keep people safe in the city centre late at night.
"Equally, recognising that while that is probably quite a small burden financially as a proportion, it is an additional burden that licensees are paying currently in parts of the city centre.
"We are happy to work with them to review that and make sure that what we have in place works for everyone."
LDRSStephen Patterson, CEO of NE1 Ltd, the business improvement district company for Newcastle city centre, welcomed the review.
He said: "Newcastle is an anomaly, we are an outlier and the only city outside of London that has a late night levy for operators who trade after midnight.
"The Newcastle of today is a vastly different environment from that of 2013 when it was introduced - at the time, we had 13 nightclubs, and now we only have four.
"The city's licensees of today have developed an offer based on quality as opposed to vertical drinking and offers-led promotions that were prevalent in 2013.
"It is a really important conversation to be having when licensees are fighting for financial survival."
