Draft Licensing Act 2003 (Permitted Temporary Activities) (Amendment) Order 2026

Matt Vickers Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 General Committees

[Matt Vickers (Stockton West) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. On Armistice Day, I begin by remembering all those who served. Many of the community events that this order helps, in Royal British Legion branches, social clubs and village halls, are where our communities come together to remember.

At the outset, I declare an interest as a regular patron of Stockton West’s pubs. We have some of the best—in fact the best—pubs in the country, and they will welcome anything that lets them put on another event and get more customers through the door. So let me be clear: the Opposition support this order. Giving licensed venues, and particularly our pubs, greater flexibility is exactly what the last Conservative Government did when we raised the limits in 2022 and 2023 to help the sector recover from the pandemic. It worked then, and I am glad the Government have recognised that. It is no surprise that a significant majority of hospitality and leisure venues backed the increase in the call for evidence. For a publican planning a beer festival, a charity quiz night or a Christmas market, five more notices and five more days a year really matter.

Of course, there must be safeguards. As shadow Policing Minister, I know how important it is that the police and environmental health authorities can scrutinise notices and step in where an event risks crime, antisocial behaviour or serious nuisance for neighbours, but that has to be balanced against the evidence. When these higher limits applied before, there was no significant increase in adverse impacts and, overall, police forces did not oppose this change in the call for evidence. It is right that we back it, but the order cannot be seen in isolation from what our pubs and hospitality businesses have been through.

In Stockton West our pubs are part of the fabric of the community, from a night out in Yarm to the locals served in Eaglescliffe, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton, Thornaby and our villages. Like a number of hon. Members, I host my own pub awards, and places like the Myton House Farm in Ingleby Barwick show what a pub can mean to a community. They provide local jobs—often a young person’s very first job—support local charities and other local businesses, and bring people together. When a pub struggles, the impact goes well beyond the landlord, and pubs are struggling.

Every week, I hear from businesses that are being absolutely battered. They are paying more to employ people after the rise in employer national insurance. They are paying the price for more red tape introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025. They are paying more in business rates because the Government cut the relief for retail, hospitality and leisure. In 2023, I led a campaign backed by more than 40 colleagues. It called on the then Chancellor to extend the 75% relief. He did, and this Government cut it.

I know the Minister may point to last month’s Budget. I welcome the 20% cut to pubs’ business rates, but that goes nowhere near far enough to undo the damage already done. The Government’s own figures suggest that only around 10% of pubs would pay no business rates, and what the Chancellor gave with one hand he took back with the other by adding 2p to the price of every pint.

The industry’s own trade body, UKHospitality, says that the sector has lost more than 100,000 jobs in the past two years. That is almost half of all the jobs lost across the entire economy. Those are not just statistics; they are bar staff, chefs and young people losing their first rung on the employment ladder, in a sector that provides almost a third of first-time jobs for 16 to 24-year-olds. The economic note for the order, although based on older data, estimates that each additional temporary event notice generates an average profit of £119, with a range of £105 to £143. That is welcome when margins are this tight, but it does not take an experienced publican to recognise that a few extra events will not pay the additional bills landing on the doormat.

I have two brief questions for the Minister. First, will she publish the evidence from 2022 and 2023 showing that the higher limits did not lead to more crime or nuisance, so that residents and licensing authorities can have confidence in the change? Secondly, will she confirm that the police and environmental health authorities keep every one of their existing powers to make reasonable objections? We support the increased flexibility, but our pubs need more support than five extra events a year. I hope the Minister will keep looking for practical ways in which licensing policy can help pubs, and that she will make the case across Government for tackling the costs that put their futures at risk.