London Councils has called for funding to cover boroughs’ additional work and greater transparency over which licensing cases the Mayor of London will take over, as a new call-in framework comes into force on 3 November.
The borough representative body’s intervention seeks a clearer selection process for applications considered important to London as a whole. It also calls for work with the government and Greater London Authority to calculate the additional costs for councils, alongside evaluation of the pilot within its first two years. These are requests for funding and scrutiny, not an agreed financial settlement or a completed review.
The concerns centre on the breadth of the eligibility tests and the administrative work attached to them. Boroughs must share application information within statutory timeframes and publicise cases identified as potentially strategic. London Councils wants residents and businesses to have greater certainty about how applications will be selected for possible mayoral intervention, while local authorities face additional duties with already stretched resources.
What the new framework changes
The Licensing Act 2003 (Applications of Potential Strategic Importance to Greater London etc and Consequential Amendment) Regulations 2026 establish the detailed notification and decision-making procedures. The regulations were made on 12 October and laid before Parliament on 13 October, with commencement set for 3 November. The legal detail therefore predates the framework’s start; the commencement does not represent a newly announced set of criteria.
The rules apply to relevant applications made from the commencement date. Applications submitted before 3 November are excluded. Boroughs retain day-to-day licensing decisions, and the Mayor’s ability to call in a qualifying case follows the borough’s initial decision. The change does not transfer routine licensing control wholesale to City Hall.
The screening tests cover applications for premises in fee bands D or E, and proposals for licensable activity after 11pm at premises in fee bands B or C. They also include applications allowing more than 5,000 people on the premises at one time, licences lasting less than three months, and applications involving live music at premises in fee bands B or C. Corresponding tests apply to applications to vary a licence.
Meeting a test does not mean that an application will automatically be called in, approved or given longer opening hours. The Greater London Authority must consider whether the application is of potential strategic importance. Any subsequent mayoral intervention is a separate stage, rather than an automatic consequence for every business within one of the listed categories.
Information and public notice duties
Local authorities must send the required application material to the GLA. Where the GLA determines that an application is potentially strategic, notices must identify the case and explain the reasons for that determination. The borough must advertise it for at least five consecutive working days within the relevant consultation period.
The borough must also provide information about a hearing and its decision. Where a hearing takes place, the material sent afterwards includes the determination and its reasons, the proceedings record and relevant documents. The Mayor has a statutory period of 20 working days to decide and give notice whether to call in the application, beginning when the relevant notification or required post-hearing material has been received.
A mayoral decision following a call-in must be communicated and publicised. These requirements explain the boroughs’ concern about extra administrative work, but they also distinguish the different stages of a case. A potentially strategic designation is not itself a decision to take over the application, and a call-in does not guarantee a more permissive licensing outcome.
Separate roles remain
The GLA’s role as a responsible authority is distinct from the call-in mechanism. It can comment on or object to licensing applications under the usual licensing objectives, while borough licensing authorities continue to handle ordinary applications and hearings. The wider London-wide Strategic Licensing Policy is another separate strand: consultation ran from 12 February to 27 March 2026. A consultation report and final policy are expected later in 2026, with the final policy subject to formal consideration of the responses.
The enacted regulations establish the call-in framework’s legal start on 3 November; the separate policy process does not change that commencement date. Nor does the framework’s introduction establish that any particular application has already been called in or overturned. Its practical effect will depend on which cases are identified, how the criteria are applied and whether the Mayor ultimately exercises the intervention power.
