Emily Fielder is Director of Communications at the Adam Smith Institute and a former Conservative political adviser.
Sadiq Khan likes to claim that London is a ’24 hour city’.
Yet the fallacy of this boast is demonstrated by any visit to the continent. A recent summer trip to one of Spain’s older cities, by way of example, left me with a single abiding impression – that is, just how undeniably better the nightlife offering was in the city centre, compared to London.
The drinks were absurdly cheap. It felt safe to walk around at night. There was a huge choice of venues- many of which opened well past 2am- and we didn’t have to walk past 5 which were closed, only to finally stumble across one which was open. Such was the novelty of the experience that it led me to shout – only half-jokingly – over the pounding music ‘maybe we should all just move here?’ This is an experience which I imagine many 20-somethings have shared on a city-break away.
Our capital’s nightlife is plummeting both internationally and intranationally. Analysis by the Times suggests that ‘costly, crime-ridden London’ is now the UK’s ‘worst night-out.’ Only 5.9% of venues in the UK’s capital are open on a Saturday night after 2am – a mere third of the number in Manchester. And only around 23% are even open after midnight- compared to almost 45% in Edimburgh.
So what’s gone so wrong?
Some claim it’s all the fault of Gen Z,those puritanically tedious teetotallers, more interested in yoga and a green smoothie than a classic pint and a moan after a long day at the local. These lazy assumptions will be familiar to anyone engaged in the housing debate, in which bad faith actors argue that young Brits can’t afford a home because they’re spending too much money on Netflix and avocado toast.
That’s not to say that adults from my generation are becoming increasingly ‘sober curious.’ But this isn’t preventing them from going out- in fact, the market, as markets do, has responded well to the decline in alcohol intake. Most bars and restaurants now stock a wide variety of alcohol-free beers, wines and spirits. Sober clubbing has never been easier.
So who – or what – are the real culprits?
As the Times correctly identified, the decline in London’s nightlife is primarily due to the rising cost of living, concerns about safety, and licensing.
Far from not wanting to go out at all, young people simply can’t afford to as often as they would like. A Night Time Industries Association survey found that over half of those sampled had felt an increased desire to go out over the past year – but that about the same proportion had said that changes in their financial situation had impacted how often they did so.
The same economic forces inflicting misery on young people are wreaking havoc for business owners too. Our sclerotic planning system has caused a shortage of commercial rental space, whilst driving up rents for what is available. Energy costs have gone up too. Our pettifogging, anti-fun and risk-averse approach to regulation recently manifested itself in an anti-social dispersal order across the city centre during the Euros final. And tax generally is too high: the Tax Foundation, for example, recently found that the UK has the second highest beer taxes in Europe.
The annual net margin for the average pub is now a measly three per cent – compared to 8.5 per cent pre-pandemic. But not content with watching the hospitality sector being driven into the ground by the poor national economic picture, some councils in London have imposed late-night alcohol levies. These apply even if a venue which has a licence which permits late-night alcohol sales isn’t open into the late hours. In some cases, this can cost up to an additional £4,400 a year.
Simultaneously, local councils are becoming increasingly prone to coming down in favour of a handful of local residents who complain about noise. Some venues are being hit by expensive abatement notices, fines and legal costs, whilst the owners of others are going to extreme lengths to make sure the same doesn’t happen to them. The owner of legendary night-club Heaven has now even bought the two adjacent flats.
If you’re lucky enough to find somewhere that’ll serve you so late, come 11pm you’ll start having to think about how, and if, you can get home safely.
This is a concern for women in particular – especially after the collapse of confidence in the Met, following Sarah Everard’s horrific murder. The Night-Tube is the preferred way home for many, but it still only runs on 5 out of 11 lines and it doesn’t run at all on Thursdays – ‘the new Fridays’ – at all. Meanwhile, general safety fears have been heightened by spiralling phone thefts and a marked decline in basic street standards, with public urination now a common sight around our capital’s cultural landmarks.
Samuel Johnson once said that ‘when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.’ But many of those age-old draws to the great metropolis for bright-eyed young professionals are slipping away. The cost of renting in London is patently absurd – and the higher-salaried jobs no longer make up for it. Now, we can’t even promise them a decent nightlife. At some point, they’ll start to decide that living in London just isn’t worth it anymore.
Throughout the election post-mortem Conservatives have – rightly – been calling for the Party to be more ‘normal’ and ‘fun.’ A focus on free-market, tax-cutting, pro hospitality policies, as we’ve argued before, is an obvious way to show to young people that it can be so. After all, if they can’t promise to fix the housing crisis right away, they can at least let them enjoy themselves on a great night out.
