{"id":5052,"date":"2026-02-12T18:53:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/2026\/02\/12\/licensing-regulations-not-properly-applied\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:53:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:53:25","slug":"licensing-regulations-not-properly-applied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/licensing-regulations-not-properly-applied\/","title":{"rendered":"Licensing regulations ‘not properly applied’"},"content":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s the view of Stephen Thomas (pictured), chief executive of Luminar Leisure, the largest nightclub operator in the country, in an interview with The Times.rnrnThere are about 2500 nightclubs in the county, Thomas said, including workingmen\u2019s clubs and rooms over pubs and if the regulations were properly applied, half would go out of business.rnrnHis comments follow an assessment of the industry where he predicted that half of the country\u2019s clubs could go out of business in the next eighteen months. The industry is a highly regulated industry, he told the newspaper, and it needed to be. There are the costs of security, fitting CCTV, health and safety laws to ensure there are adequate fire exits, and protecting staff against excessive noise. rnrnHe admitted the nightclub industry has had to shoulder some of the blame for the binge-drinking culture, but also criticised supermarkets for selling lager cheaper than water and pubs with happy hours and \u2018all-you-can-drink\u2019 offers.rnrnThomas said the blame was sometimes misplaced however. If someone leaves a pub and is refused entry to a nightclub by the door supervisor or manager, leading to confrontation, the image is of confrontation by the nightclub \u2013 no-one blames the pub. rnrnHe would support a minimum price on alcohol, based on its relative strength, he said. He opposes supermarkets that sell alcohol for 25p a can, saying that the health implications are \u2018mad\u2019. rnrn\u2018We know that when people consume alcohol, their behaviour changes. There has to be regulation that says you can\u2019t sell alcohol irresponsibly. This isn\u2019t an on-licence or off-licence issue. It\u2019s an alcohol issue\u2019. rnrnHe accepted that a failing nightclub is likely to cut its prices to survive, and so a crackdown on cheap drinks \u2013 currently being considered through the government\u2019s proposed mandatory code in the Crime and Justice Bill before parliament \u2013 will help better-run companies that can afford the necessary spending. \u2018Only the best will survive, he said. \u2018That\u2019s got to be a good thing\u2019. rn<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s the view of Stephen Thomas (pictured), chief executive of Luminar Leisure, the largest nightclub operator in the country, in an interview with The Times.rnrnThere are about 2500 nightclubs in the county, Thomas said, including workingmen\u2019s clubs and rooms over pubs and if the regulations were properly applied, half would go out of business.rnrnHis comments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instituteoflicensing.org\/news_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}