Downing Street backs vertical drinking in Soho pubs amid council row
Downing Street has waded into the debate over so-called "vertical drinking" and called on Westminster City Council to "work with" the industry to maintain the culture of pints outside London pubs.
"Busy pubs full of people talking to each other is not a public nuisance, it is British life and it is thousands of jobs," Andy Burnham's team has said.
A public row has erupted over draft guidance from Westminster Council which encouraged major restrictions on standing in favour of outside seating at West End boozers.
In a draft policy, the council also said that the area around Soho, Oxford Street and Trafalgar square should "normally refuse" to grant new licences to pubs, bars and other hospitality venues.
These rules are out for consultation, in an effort to "discourage excessive drunkenness" and "encourage provision of more seating in premises that serve alcohol for people to sit and enjoy a drink and order food by table service in place of open bar space that caters for high volume vertical drinking".
Sadiq Khan got stuck into the debate with a post on X: "You can't run a world-famous nightlife district with a village-hall mindset."
The Conservative-led local authority has since said "there is no plan" to stop "vertical drinking", and the leader of the council Paul Swaddle has accused the press of writing "confusing stories" that give this impression.
In a signal of a deepening row between Tories in Westminster Council and Labour-run City Hall, Swaddle added: "We don't need lectures from City Hall on backing hospitality when they have directed the police to object to every new licence application as their solution to curbing crime in the West End."
Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said efforts to put further restrictions on pub landlords are a "total misstep", at "a time when two pubs are closing each day and publicans are only making 12p profit per pint".
This follows a number of social media efforts by the new Prime Minister to present himself as an ally of the embattled pubs sector.
A few days after taking power in July, Burnham appeared in a social media video alongside the new Chancellor John Healey to hail the newly-announced cut to hospitality business rates.
The PM has aimed to reassure pubs with the insistence that "the cavalry is coming" to help out the industry.
Though these efforts to help out struggling pubs have been highly publicised, City AM has reported that the savings will be "dwarfed by other costs" of doing business.
Pubs have been laden with major hikes to employment costs and business rates since Labour came to power in 2024.
Reporting for CityAM Canada on business and the wider Canadian economy.
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