Why the Soho spat over standing while drinking could be the first of many

Who should have the final say over what happens in the heart of London?

It's been more than a week of high profile wrangling over the rules in Soho, a week when the terms "vertical drinking" and "cumulative impact zones" have come to the fore.

It's been a period of very public and pretty acrimonious accusations between Conservative-run Westminster Council and London's Labour mayor - all over what direction the licensing policy for the area should take.

The mayor says the council's plans will harm Soho's hospitality trade, describing them as "overly onerous and archaic".

The council has accused Sir Sadiq Khan of "an attack on Westminster orchestrated by the mayor in his quest to take control of licensing".

In a power struggle of how and when we drink, both sides insist they have the best interest of Soho and its businesses at heart.

The row centres on Westminster Council's new draft licensing plan, something it has to produce every five years.

For the first time, though, it has to consult the mayor's office over it, following changes brought in under the 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act.

London City Hall doesn't much like what it sees, picking out particular areas of the plan for criticism.

The plan states the council will "discourage excessive drunkenness and encourage the provision of more seating in premises that serve alcohol... in place of open bar space that caters for high volume vertical drinking".

That's been written up by some as a ban on drinking while standing up. It isn't, but is a policy that could apply to new applications.

The plan also talks of Soho's designation as a cumulative impact zone - basically an area with lots of pubs, clubs and restaurants already in it.

It says the presumption would be that new applications in the area would be turned down unless in exceptional circumstances.

"We're worried that the policy is overly restrictive and it will ultimately harm businesses", says London's Deputy Mayor for Culture Justine Simons.

"We want to see the spirit of the policy shifted to be pro-business, pro-nightlife, pro-London and pro-joy. We want it to be positive, not this kind of nuisance based approach."

She says the night time economy is worth £21bn to the economy and employs 600,000 Londoners.

"We want to see a licensing policy that is fit for purpose," she adds.

Under the law changes, Westminster will have to respond to City Hall's concerns.

Later in the year it is also expected the mayor will be granted further powers to "call-in" individual applications if he disagrees with the council's judgement.

For the council itself, it has been a week of denying headlines that it plans to ban people from standing up and drinking.

It puts the blame clearly at Sir Sadiq's door.

"I think it's fair to say that the media has been used in order to advance a political agenda rather than to necessarily inform people about what the real questions are in this debate," says Westminster's deputy leader, Conservative councillor Tim Barnes.

"There aren't any real truths to the idea that we want to stop vertical drinking inside or outside pubs or that we want to curtail activity after 10pm.

"What both of those policies were about was trying to find ways to offer hope, offer opportunity and new avenues for new venues in an area which already has the highest concentration of venues anywhere in central London."

Westminster has also accused the mayor of not doing enough to tackle what they call the "real" issues for businesses in Soho.

They point out that 26% of all low level crime in London, for things like phone theft, are in the wards of West End and St James's, which are both around Soho.

They also want more buses to run later at night and for the mayor to make the Night Tube run on a Thursday.

"If you sorted out the police, if you sorted out the buses and the Night Tube, then we could all enjoy Soho and the rest of the West End later at night," Barnes says.

City Hall says it's invested £4.5m in a new police unit in the West End and calls Westminster the best connected night time transport area in the capital.

The two sides seem to agree on very little.

Westminster's draft licensing plan is the first to come under scrutiny from City Hall under the law changes from earlier in the year - but it won't be the last.

Every borough has to produce a similar plan and it'll be interesting to see how the mayor's office deals with them when they're published in the coming years.

It may be no coincidence that the spat this week came at the same time that the mayor's Oxford Street Development Corporation officially took control over planning in that part of the so-called "nation's High Street".

Pedestrianisation of the stretch from Oxford Circus to Selfridges is something strongly opposed by the local authority - a certain Westminster Council.

There may be more rows ahead.

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