º£½ÇÊÓƵ

Nottingham City Council is cancelling a levy that late night bars and clubs have to pay, in a bid to ease the financial pressures they face.

The city’s Late Night Levy scheme applies to licensed premises which sell alcohol after midnight with the proceeds split between Nottinghamshire Police, the county Crime Commissioner and the council to cover the cost of dealing with crime and anti-social behaviour and street cleansing.

Smaller premises pay a few hundred pounds but larger businesses can pay more than £4,000.

The scheme will stop from the end of next month and it is anticipated with the lost income offset by an extra £13 million recieved by Nottinghamshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner towards recruiting more officers.

Council neighbourhoods, safety and inclusion spokeswoman Coun Neghat Khan said: “A lot has changed since the Late Night Levy was introduced eight years ago, with the hospitality industry really struggling during the pandemic – only to be hit by the cost-of-living crisis bringing them higher bills and lower incomes from reduced customer numbers.

“It was the right time for us to consider whether the Levy should be revoked, to ease the financial burden on existing businesses and to help encourage businesses looking to expand or invest in Nottingham’s late night economy.”

The levy was introduced in 2014, for licensed premises in the city operating between midnight and 6am.

An exemption agreed for members of the Business Improvement District had reduced the expected income from the levy to around £67,000 a year – with the BID continuing to fund other late night support schemes such as street pastors and taxi marshals through its membership subscriptions.

A council spokesman said: “However, as the economic situation for the hospitality industry has changed since the introduction of the levy eight years ago – first with the impact of the Covid pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis – it is felt the levy is placing a difficult burden on existing licensed trade businesses and could be a barrier to incoming or expanding businesses.”