Here is a pattern that shows up as soon as you map a national quick-service estate against its licence position: a large share of sites close well before the night-time economy they sit inside has finished.
Not the ones on ring roads. The ones on high streets, beside venues, on the walk home. Sites where demand demonstrably exists between eleven at night and three in the morning, sitting dark, because the licence says so.
Usually history rather than intent. A licence was granted years ago on the terms available at the time, the site changed around it, and nobody revisited the hours because nobody was tasked with revisiting the hours. Estates are large, licensing is specialist, and an early close does not generate a complaint from anyone inside the business.
The result is revenue trapped behind a condition that could be varied.
The National Licensing Policy Framework says premises should be granted licences on the terms sought, and that guideline hours alone are not grounds for refusal. At the same time, the London Nightlife Taskforce and a run of local strategies have made the economic case for after-dark trading a mainstream political position rather than a fringe one.
That combination will not last indefinitely. Applications made now, with evidence, are landing in the most favourable conditions the sector has seen in a long time.
The analysis is quick. The value is in knowing which twenty sites to pursue and which two hundred to leave alone, because a refused application is worse than no application at all.