Pubs are regulated by a limited amount of alcohol licenses, which goes back centuries. Do you really want there to be licenses for other industries as well?

> Do you really want there to be licenses for other industries as well?

Yes. I'm surprised that business licenses aren't already a thing.

I expect a competent government to issue licenses to barbers based off them proving hygiene standards, trained staff with college diplomas in hair-dressing, number of employees, and an extremely limited number of these to be issued based off local need calculated from population by census.

I expect local government to issue similar licenses for all other industries, who should prove their competency, adherence to standards, jobs created, and cater to local needs.

That's not what I said nor implied.

It's not about licences - councils can absolutely decide if a business can or can not operate in any area already, regardless of licence requirements.