How to Start & Run a B&B BandBED2eBook-1 | Page 43

You will also of course need to be in compliance with all planning, fire, health and
safety and other legislation, as your Premises Licence Application goes to the Licensing
Authority (usually your district council) and also to the Police, Fire Service, Planning
Department, Environmental Health Department, Child Protection Service and Trading
Standards Service. So if you are not compliant in any area, this process may mean that
you need to incur costs in putting things right.
It is also worth noting that in the last few years the Government have bring bringing in
more guidelines and mandatory codes of conduct for licensees, aimed at curbing ‘binge
drinking’ and anti-social behaviour. As with most such well-meaning efforts by
Government to control behaviour, these often have unintended consequences.
At the time of writing (August 2010), for example, the Government has just started a
“consultation” on options to implement its pledge to stop the sale of alcohol at “below
cost”. The intention is to stop loss-leading supermarket promotions of lager, beer and
cider which lead to binge-drinking (and incidentally have contributed to the
widespread closure of pubs). However, if not implemented sensibly with appropriate
limits or exceptions, this could be highly damaging: a B&B giving a glass of wine on
arrival, for instance, is serving alcohol at “below cost” – though not of course in a way
which would encourage anti-social drinking. The tourism and hospitality industry,
including of course the Bed & Breakfast Association, will be lobbying hard to ensure
that normal B&B trading practices are not made illegal alongside the practices the new
regulation is aimed at.
**This depends on the “business rateable” value of your premises. If, like ours, your B&B is domestically
rated rather than business rated, you will automatically fall into “Band A” at £70 (though this is not made
clear on the application form). See the following section for when a B&B is usually rated for business
rates rather than council tax.
Fire Precautions
This is another area where the whole regulatory regime has changed in recent years.
Whereas the new Licensing Act 2003 came in on 24 November 2005, the Fire
Precautions Act 1971 was superseded by new regulations on 1 October 2006.
The inelegantly-titled Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (RRFSO) became
potentially the most serious threat to many B&B owners of recent years.
We spent a lot of time getting to grips with the nitty-gritty of fire precautions from 2005,
having had to invest heavily in upgrading our own B&B to meet the requirements of
the local fire department (whilst also satisfying the planning and listed buildings
departments). So we are able to give readers of this book a very practical perspective.
But also, more importantly, David in his position of Chief Executive of the Bed &
Breakfast Association has taken a key role within the hospitality industry in tackling
the problems that arose in the first couple of years or so of the RRFSO. So in this