Little effect from longer licensing hours
The new British alcohol licensing laws, which became effective in November, are deemed to make little difference to the drinks industry.
Consumers are shifting from on-trade to off-trade drinking, motivated by the lower price and greater comfort of drinking at home. Few venues will move regular closing times by more than an hour and the benefits to pub companies will largely be cancelled out by extra costs, according to John Band, senior drinks analyst at Datamonitor.
England and Wales’s new alcohol licensing laws allows retailers and bars to acquire a license to sell alcohol for 24 hours a day, although only 359 of the UK’s pubs, bars and clubs have applied for 24-hour licenses.
