London Council’s Cumulative Impact Policies Expire

The Policing and Crime Act 2018 put cumulative impact assessments (CIAs) on a statutory footing and requires that councils review their CIAs at least every three years, to assess whether the policies should be maintained, amended or removed.

The deadline for Hammersmith and Fulham Council to review their CIAs for the Fulham and Shepherd’s Bush areas was April 2021, coinciding with the third anniversary of the Policing and Crime Act 2018 coming into force.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Council was unable to collect evidence regarding the CIAs as they had planned to in 2020. The Council took the view that any evidence that would have been gathered during the pandemic would not have been an accurate reflection of how the day and night-time economy would operate in the future and would likely lead to misleading or inaccurate conclusions being drawn from the assessment.

As a result, both CIAs expired in April 2021 and the Council can no longer rely on the evidence that was used previously to support the implementation of their CIAs. However, applicants in these areas should take note that the absence of a CIA does not prevent the responsible authorities or residents from making representations on the grounds that a premises may give rise to a negative cumulative impact in the
area.

The Council stated that they would be gathering evidence regarding the CIAs through the course of 2021 and 2022, and any evidence gathered will feed in to the Council’s renewal and revision of their full statement of licensing policy, which is due to conclude before July 2022.

For more information, contact licensing associate solicitor, David Inzani, at d.inzani@popall.co.uk or call 07943 097 660.