Pub companies are stockpiling licensing approvals from magistrates in case the licensing system goes pear-shaped after proposed reforms hand responsibility to local authorities.
SFI Group has two years' worth of licensing applications approved but not yet acted upon so that its openings pipeline can proceed without hindrance should fears about long delays with local government in charge of pub licensing prove correct.
Andrew Latham, SFI's chief executive, said the company had set up a dedicated licensing team to get applications going through the present system before reform arrives, probably in 2004.
He said: "We've actively advanced the licensing situation. We have about two years of licences in the back, so if it does all go to treacle we'll be able to keep ourselves moving forward as a company."
At JD Wetherspoon, around 40 to 60 licences, enough to last six to nine months, are fully in place out of a total current pipeline of 300 properties. Wetherspoon's chairman, Tim Martin, a virulent opponent of the government's proposals to transfer licensing from magistrates to local councillors, said the change " will take longer and cost more. We will have to apply for licences earlier and get more properties into the process. And instead of it costing £10 a licence it could cost £5,000 to £10,000."
However, observers are sceptical of Martin's claim that current licence aplications cost his company as little as £10, suggesting that the full opportunity cost per licence would not be far short of the sum he claims local authority licences will cost.
The government minister in charge of licensing, Kim Howells, has told pub company bosses concerned about the changes that civil servants estimate savings to the industry from licensing reform will average £190m a year for the first 10 years, with a "very considerable" reduction in red tape.
SFI Group has two years' worth of licensing applications approved but not yet acted upon so that its openings pipeline can proceed without hindrance should fears about long delays with local government in charge of pub licensing prove correct.
Andrew Latham, SFI's chief executive, said the company had set up a dedicated licensing team to get applications going through the present system before reform arrives, probably in 2004.
He said: "We've actively advanced the licensing situation. We have about two years of licences in the back, so if it does all go to treacle we'll be able to keep ourselves moving forward as a company."
At JD Wetherspoon, around 40 to 60 licences, enough to last six to nine months, are fully in place out of a total current pipeline of 300 properties. Wetherspoon's chairman, Tim Martin, a virulent opponent of the government's proposals to transfer licensing from magistrates to local councillors, said the change " will take longer and cost more. We will have to apply for licences earlier and get more properties into the process. And instead of it costing £10 a licence it could cost £5,000 to £10,000."
However, observers are sceptical of Martin's claim that current licence aplications cost his company as little as £10, suggesting that the full opportunity cost per licence would not be far short of the sum he claims local authority licences will cost.
The government minister in charge of licensing, Kim Howells, has told pub company bosses concerned about the changes that civil servants estimate savings to the industry from licensing reform will average £190m a year for the first 10 years, with a "very considerable" reduction in red tape.
