Proposed Licensing reforms planned in the Modern Industrial Strategy

The Government has recently published its Modern Industrial Strategy, which is a 10 year plan to increase business investment and grow the industries of the future in the UK. The Strategy aims to make it easier and for more efficient for businesses to invest, and provide the certainty and stability required for long-term investment strategic decisions.

Under its “Creative Industries Sector Plan”, the Government has set out proposals for working with “industry and local authorities on delivering changes to the licensing system that support the growth of the creative and hospitality sectors, including live music. The government has established a licensing taskforce, which will soon publish its recommendations for making improvements to the licensing system.”

It also set out the following planning reforms with the aim of expediting the development of economic projects such as film studios, music arenas and large‑scale performing arts venues.

The strategy also plans to transform business rates over the course of this Parliament, to provide a fairer system for stakeholders, including those in the creative industries (this includes hospitality and leisure premises with rateable values less than £500,000.00).

A link to the strategy is found below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/creative-industries-sector-plan