Pubs without beer gardens will be allowed to serve drinks in their carparks from 12 April, the government has said.
Licensing rules for pubs, bars, cafés and restaurants were simplified last summer to make it easier for businesses to partially reopen in line with Covid guidelines.
These relaxed rules will remain in place when outdoor hospitality venues are allowed to begin reopening on 12 April at the earliest, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed.
This means that food and drink can be served to customers in makeshift seating areas in pubs and restaurants’ existing carparks and terraces.
Temporary cheaper licensing also means that more businesses will be able to sell alcohol to be taken off the premises and consumed elsewhere.
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick said that the “quicker, easier and cheaper” licensing rules will help venues get “back on their feet” when announcing them in June last year.
Two households or up to six people will be allowed to meet outdoors when restaurant and pub gardens reopen on 12 April, according to the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.
People won’t be allowed to meet indoors until 17 May at the earliest, when hospitality venues will be allowed to begin seating people inside.
The “rule of six” will remain in place indoors until 21 June when “all legal limits on social contact” will finally be lifted, if the roadmap’s timings are not revised.
