DD2607 Business Friendly Licensing and Regulation Fund

1.1.    London’s high streets at night were devastated by the pandemic, with many culture, leisure and hospitality businesses being the first to close and among the last to reopen. Prior to COVID-19, London’s night-time economy was worth over £26bn a year and employed 1.6m Londoners.
1.2.    To ensure businesses could operate within the ever-changing restrictions of the pandemic, licensing, regulation and business support teams had to work together in new ways, responding to the fast-moving challenges of the pandemic. This has resulted in innovative ways of working and successful partnerships between local authority regulation, regeneration and economic development teams, as well as high street businesses, the police, the GLA and other partners.
1.3.    The London Recovery Programme, led by the GLA and London Councils, aims to boost London’s high streets by making it easier for businesses to trade and access council support. London Councils has published its Pledges for Business, which are backed by every council leader in the capital. They include a commitment from local authorities to implementing a ‘business-friendly’ approach to licensing and regulation. With London’s high streets suffering long-term damage from the pandemic, this business-friendly approach will be essential for economic recovery in all parts of the capital. 
1.4.    To support this work, the GLA commissioned research into business-friendly licensing and regulation practices. The research has provided a wealth of examples across seven themes of how councils supported their local businesses before and during the pandemic. 
1.5.    The Mayor approved a fund of £70,000 to help local authorities develop and trial innovative business-friendly licensing and regulation practices (MD2963). 13 boroughs submitted expressions of interest to the fund; these were assessed by GLA officers, with input from officers from London Councils.
1.6.    Five projects were identified as being suitable for funding. The total amount requested for these projects is £125,000.
1.7.    These projects are detailed in the table below.

1.8.    The current budget of £70,000, approved under MD2963, does not allow for all the identified projects to be supported.
1.9.    Additional funding of £55,000 has been identified from underspend in the Economic Development Unit’s Technology and Innovation Programme budget, approved for the Challenge LDN programme under MD2921. Reallocating this funding would allow all five of the identified projects to be supported.
1.10.    Challenge LDN is the Mayor’s open innovation programme, which brings innovators together with London’s public, private and third sectors to co-design solutions to the city’s complex challenges. Complex challenges require flexible solutions; therefore, novel approaches have been utilised for two of the three challenges within Challenge LDN 2022. These novel approaches have required lower spending than was initially budgeted for, allowing for the reallocation of this funding.
1.11.    The additional funding from the Economic Development Unit budget would be targeted to support projects that focus on the use of technology in their innovations – namely those proposed by Hackney and Islington.
1.12.    As approved in MD2963, specialist licensing consultants will work with GLA officers and funded boroughs to develop metrics and performance indicators to monitor the impact of the projects and the overall programme.
 

2.1.    The objectives of the investment are to:
•    enable all five recommend business-friendly licensing projects to be supported
•    support night-time businesses to recover from the pandemic 
•    help local authorities to develop and implement innovation in licensing policies and practices that will help grow London’s 24-hour economy.
2.2.    This will achieve the following outcomes: 
•    more business-friendly licensing practices introduced, as a result of trial projects and data sharing, to boost London’s recovery at night
•    borough licensing teams working more collaboratively; and providing certainty and clarity to businesses
•    establishing London as a global testbed for solutions to city challenges.
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the Mayor of London must give ‘due regard’ to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; as well as to advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations, between people who have a ‘protected characteristic’ as defined in the Equality Act 2010 and those who do not. 
3.2.    The 24 Hour London programme aims to make London a safe, fair and sustainable 24-hour city. It does this by working with local authorities to ensure our high streets and town centres work better for all Londoners around the clock. It also aims to improve conditions for night workers, who suffer a range of inequalities compared to their counterparts who work during the day, and are more likely to be from groups with protected characteristics than other workers.
3.3.    The proposed projects outlined in this decision form will enable the continued creation of opportunities for Londoners, providing social and economic benefits in the capital. They will also offer support to those businesses particularly impacted by COVID-19, including those in the hospitality and leisure sector.
 

4.1.    The programme outlined in this decision also links to the following Mayoral strategies and priorities:
•    the Mayor’s Vision for London as 24-Hour City
•    the Economic Development Strategy
•    the Business, Jobs and Growth recovery foundation
•    the Helping Londoners into Good Work recovery mission.
Risks
4.2.    The risks and mitigations are detailed in the table below. 

Conflicts of interest 
4.3.    There are no conflicts of interest to note for any of the officers involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form.

5.1.    MD2963 approved a grant fund totalling £70,000 to support the Business-Friendly Licensing and Regulation Fund. As indicated within the report, an additional £55,000 budget is required to support the programme and maximise project delivery. This will increase the total grant funding available for the programme to £125,000. 
5.2.    The additional £55,000 budget requirement will be funded via the reallocation of funding from the GLA’s Economic Development Unit’s Technology and Innovation Programme budget (currently totalling £374,000) as approved as part of the 2022-23 GLA budget process; and will now be accounted for within the GLA’s ’24-Hour London’ Programme budget held within the Culture and Creative Industries Unit. 
5.3.    The Programme is expected to be completed by 31 March 2023. All appropriate budget adjustments will be made. 
 

6.1.    The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Director fall within the exercise of the GLA’s statutory duties to promote tourism to, in and through Greater London, and powers to promote and/or to do anything that is facilitative of, or conducive or incidental to, economic development and wealth creation within Greater London; and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought, officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:
•    pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people
•    consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom
•    consult with appropriate bodies.
6.2.    In taking the decisions requested of him, the Director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty – namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; and to advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations, between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, sex, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.
6.3.    Officers have indicated that the expenditure proposed amounts to the provision of grant funding as a contribution to related third-party project costs and not a payment for services to be provided. They must therefore ensure that the proposed funding is disbursed in a fair and transparent manner, in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code; and funding agreements are put in place between and executed by the GLA and proposed recipients before any commitment to provide the funding is made.