Pavement licences after the 2023 Act changes

A pavement licence application is made to the council as highway authority, not as planning authority, and it covers removable furniture placed on the highway outside premises that sell food or drink. The regime began as a temporary pandemic measure in the Business and Planning Act 2020 and was made permanent by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, which also lengthened the consultation period, raised the fee caps and gave councils proper enforcement powers. As at 17 September 2026, that is the framework in force, and the detail of how your council runs it sits in its published scheme.

The licence is not planning permission and does not replace it. That is the single point businesses most often get wrong.

Where the pavement licence regime came from

Before 2020, putting tables and chairs on the footway needed a street cafe licence under Part 7A of the Highways Act 1980, a process that varied widely between councils and could take months.

The Business and Planning Act 2020 created a parallel, faster route: a short application, a notice fixed to the premises, a brief public consultation, a fixed determination period and a low capped fee. It was introduced as a temporary measure and extended several times.

The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 made it permanent and reworked the timetable and the fees. The older Highways Act route still exists for things the pavement licence does not cover, such as permanent structures.

What changed under the 2023 Act

The changes fall into four groups.

The regime became permanent, so businesses and councils are no longer working to an expiry date. The public consultation period was lengthened, giving residents and other businesses a longer window to comment on an application than the very short period the 2020 Act allowed. The fee caps were raised, with a higher cap for new applications than for renewals, and each council sets its own fee up to that cap. And councils gained enforcement powers to deal with furniture left out without a licence or in breach of conditions.

Check your council's published scheme for the figures and the dates it applies, because the caps are maximums and authorities set their own fee and their own standard licence term beneath them.

Application, consultation and determination

The application goes to the council with a plan showing the proposed area, the furniture to be used, evidence of public liability insurance and the fee. You then fix a notice to the premises where the public can read it, and the consultation period runs from that point.

During consultation the council will take comments from residents, neighbouring businesses, the highway team and often the accessibility forum. Objections usually concern footway width, obstruction of a bus stop or crossing, noise, and the effect on people with visual impairments or wheelchair users.

The council then determines within the period set by the Act, granting with conditions, granting in part or refusing.

There is one point to verify rather than assume. The treatment of an application that the council does not determine in time changed with the 2023 reforms, and the way deemed grant now operates is set out in the amended Act. Read the current text on legislation.gov.uk rather than relying on guidance written for the original temporary scheme.

Conditions councils commonly attach

Two conditions apply automatically under the Act: a no-obstruction condition protecting passage along the highway, and a smoke-free seating condition requiring some seating to be available for non-smokers.

Beyond those, the standard local conditions are predictable.

• A minimum clear footway width, frequently 1.5 metres or more, measured from the furniture to the nearest obstruction.
• Removal of all furniture outside permitted hours, with storage inside the premises.
• Barriers with a tapping rail detectable by a long cane, and colour contrast on the barrier top.
• No fixings into the highway surface.
• Restrictions on heaters, umbrellas and windbreaks, and on any structure with a roof and sides.
• Hours of use, often ending earlier than the premises licence allows.

Noise is the condition most often tightened on renewal. Where the seating is close to flats above or opposite, the council may ask for evidence, and a noise impact assessment prepared to recognised methods is the usual response. Councils expect a suitably qualified author for that work and professional review is strongly advised.

Enforcement and removal notices

The 2023 Act gave councils a workable enforcement route. Where furniture is placed on the highway without a licence, or in breach of a condition, the council can require its removal and can remove and store it itself, recovering its costs.

Repeated breaches also affect renewal. A licence is not a permanent right and a history of trading beyond the licensed hours, or of leaving barriers out overnight, is exactly what an officer looks at when the renewal lands.

And there is a practical exposure that surprises people: your public liability insurance has to cover the licensed area, and an incident involving a member of the public tripping over a barrier is your liability, not the council's.

How the licence interacts with planning permission

The licence authorises removable furniture on the highway. It does not authorise:

1. A permanent structure such as a timber parklet, a raised deck or a fixed canopy, which is operational development and needs planning permission.
2. Fixings, signage or lighting attached to a listed building, which needs listed building consent.
3. An advertisement on a parasol or barrier beyond the limits of deemed consent, which needs advertisement consent.
4. A change in the use of the premises, for example from a shop in Class E to a hot food takeaway, which is a separate application.
5. The sale of alcohol outdoors, which is a premises licence question under separate legislation.

Land in your own forecourt is not highway, so a pavement licence does not apply there at all. Tables on private forecourt land may need planning permission if they represent a material change in the use of that land, particularly where the intensification brings noise into a residential street.

An illustrative example: a cafe occupying a Class E unit applied for a pavement licence for six tables on a 3.2 metre footway. The council granted it with a 1.8 metre clear width condition, which reduced the layout to four tables against the building line, and required barriers with a tapping rail. The owner then wanted a fixed awning over the seating, which was operational development on the highway and outside the licence altogether. This example is illustrative rather than a real case.

Where the reform timetable matters to your plans, the UK planning law updates timeline is the place to follow changes, and fee movements elsewhere in the system follow a similar annual pattern, described in planning fees and annual indexation.

Sources for this article: the Business and Planning Act 2020 as amended, the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, and the government's pavement licence guidance. Verify the current fee caps and periods against your council's published scheme before applying.

You can browse the 66 PlanScope report types by category if a supporting document is needed for a related planning application.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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