Westminster passes licensing policy encouraging seated drinking for new licences

Westminster City Council adopted its 2026 licensing policy at a full council meeting on Thursday 17 September. The policy pushes licensed venues towards seating and table service, but it does not ban standing at the bar.

The vote went ahead even though only 7% of people who answered the council’s consultation thought the policy would help promote business in the area.

What the Westminster licensing policy means for Soho pubs

The policy says the council will discourage excessive drunkenness. It will also push for more seats in premises that sell alcohol, so customers can sit down, eat and order at their table instead of packing into open bar space designed for “high volume vertical drinking”.

The change applies to fresh applications. When the council weighs up a new licence, it will take into account whether customers at the venue would drink sitting down or on their feet. Existing pubs will not be required to replace their standing areas with tables.

The Cumulative Impact Zone, an area where tighter licensing restrictions apply, also stays in place. More than 80% of consultation responses disagreed with keeping it.

Labour councillors vote against

Westminster’s Labour Group opposed the plan. Labour councillor Robert Eagleton called it “an act of economic vandalism which risks robbing the West End of its unique vibrancy”. He said residents had legitimate worries about crime and antisocial behaviour, but his group could not back a policy that faced overwhelming public opposition and put the borough’s night-time economy at risk.

Councillor Tim Barnes, Westminster’s deputy leader, whose cabinet brief covers growth and planning, took the opposite view. He called it the “most liberalising policy anyone in the room has ever been involved with” and said claims that it would stop people standing in pubs were wrong.