The Mayor of London can now overrule borough councils on licensing decisions for the capital’s biggest venues, as new regulations giving Sadiq Khan call-in powers come into force today.
From 3 November, the Mayor is empowered to call in and determine licensing applications deemed to be of potential strategic importance to Greater London, covering pubs, nightclubs and live music venues, including decisions about opening hours and related conditions.
The change is one of the most significant shifts in how licensing works in the capital since the Licensing Act 2003. The vast majority of applications will still be decided at borough level — but where a case is judged strategically important, the final say can now move to City Hall.
The mechanism works in stages. When an application meets the strategic criteria, the Greater London Authority must be notified and will determine whether it falls within the framework. The Mayor then decides whether to exercise the call-in power. If a decision is called in, the Mayor must issue a direction to the relevant licensing authority, having regard to his licensing policy and the importance of promoting the licensing objectives. New rights of appeal against City Hall decisions have also been created.
The scope is wide. The regulations define strategic premises to include those in the two highest rateable bands — anything above £87,000 a year — meaning the powers will be most extensive in the most expensive areas of the capital, such as the West End, and any venue with a capacity greater than 5,000 people.
Premises with rateable values as low as £4,300 that wish to stay open after 11pm also fall into the strategic category, so operators whose applications for later hours are rejected by their borough licensing committee may now see them granted at mayoral level. Live music venues in bands B and C are deemed strategic, as are applications for licences of less than three months’ duration. Only premises in the lowest rateable band are untouched by the regulations.
The Government says the reform is designed to deliver a more enabling, proportionate and growth-focused approach to licensing in London. The Mayor has said he will use the powers with a pro-jobs approach, and a final London-wide licensing policy is expected later this year.
Ministers have sought to reassure boroughs that the power is intended to be used only in specific circumstances, as a measure of last resort, and that the local licensing authority will continue to be the key authority in determining applications.
Not everyone is convinced. London Councils, the body representing all of the capital’s local authorities, is understood to be considering its response to the scope of the powers, which is wider than some had expected. Westminster’s deputy leader has questioned how the broad impact of the new powers aligns with the idea that mayoral interventions were only meant to be a last resort.
The regulations — the Licensing Act 2003 (Applications of Potential Strategic Importance to Greater London etc and Consequential Amendment) Regulations 2026 — give practical effect to powers introduced through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026. The wider reforms also make the Greater London Authority a responsible authority and enable the Mayor to issue a London-wide Strategic Licensing Policy.
The move follows the Mayor’s earlier plans to boost the capital’s hospitality and nightlife industries, including proposals for a more unified and consistent licensing system across the 33 London local authorities, each of which currently has a different licensing policy.
For venue operators, the practical effect is clearest in the West End and other high-value areas, and for late-night venues: a refusal at borough level is no longer necessarily the end of the road if the application is judged to matter to London as a whole. For residents and councils, the test will be how sparingly City Hall uses a power it insists is a last resort.
The change comes as City Hall continues to grapple with major civic questions across the capital, from five tower blocks evacuated in Canning Town over structural fears to the High Court challenge over Hampstead Heath ponds.
