How much is a dog daycare licence in the UK?

It is set by each council. Examples from 1 April 2026: Elmbridge £432 for a new licence and £380 for a renewal (five dogs or fewer), Test Valley £331, Liverpool £325. Bromley charges £159 admin plus a vet inspection of £488 or £666 plus a grant fee of £75 to £223 depending on licence length, so a three-year licence for more than ten dogs comes to £1,048 before a mid-term visit.

Why does holiday cover cost a dog daycare more than other businesses?

Because the staff ratio is a licence condition. A shop can run one person short for a week. A daycare at one person to ten dogs cannot, so every day of holiday is paid twice: once to the person away and once to the person standing in. At the 2026 National Living Wage that is about £6,700 a year per full-time member of staff.

Does a five-star dog daycare licence cost more to run?

Yes. The higher standard is one full-time member of staff per eight dogs instead of ten, so every member of staff on the floor is paired with two fewer paying dogs. At £30 a day, five days a week, 48 weeks a year, that is £14,400 of turnover per member of staff. In return a five-star licence lasts three years instead of one.

How many dogs can a dog daycare take?

The space rule sets the ceiling: total space available to the dogs, inside and outside, divided by six square metres. A 120 square metre premises works out at 20 dogs. The council can license fewer than the space allows, and the staff ratio then decides how many people you need on each shift.

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What a dog daycare licence costs in England, and the costs it hides

DDuncanPublished 21 September 2026Every figure checked against its source on 21 September 2026

Short answer

A dog day care licence in England costs between about £325 and £500 in council fees for most applicants in 2026, and over £1,000 where the council sends a vet and charges for it. The fee is the small part. The licence conditions set a staff ratio of one person to ten dogs and six square metres per dog, and those two numbers decide your wage bill, your holiday cover and the most dogs you can ever take.

£325Cheapest fee we foundLiverpool, 2026
£1,048Dearest, with a vetBromley, three years
£6,700Holiday cover, per personPay plus a stand-in
£14,400What two fewer dogs costPer staff member, a year

The council fee

Each council sets its own fee. The process guidance lets them charge for considering the application including inspections, compliance checks on existing licence holders, and enforcement against unlicensed businesses, and tells them fees must be “fair and reasonable”. In practice the same licence costs very different amounts depending on where the building is.

Dog day care licence fees from 1 April 2026
Council	New licence	Renewal	Notes
Elmbridge	£432	£380	Five dogs or fewer. £316 on application, £116 on grant. Vet inspections where required charged separately.
Test Valley	£331		Non-domestic day care. Vet inspections charged separately where required.
Liverpool	£325		No separate vet line. Fee taken once documents are complete.
Bromley	£159 admin + £488 or £666 vet + £75 to £223 grant	£159 admin + £400 or £488 vet + grant	Vet fee depends on under or over 10 dogs. Grant fee £75 (1 year), £150 (2 years), £223 (3 years). Mid-term unannounced vet visit £311.

So a new three-year licence for more than ten dogs in Bromley is £159 + £666 + £223 = £1,048 before the mid-term visit, against £325 in Liverpool for the same activity. The difference is entirely whether the council sends a vet and passes the bill on.

The vet inspection some councils add

Once a local authority receives an application to grant or renew a licence, it must appoint a suitably qualified inspector... A suitably qualified person... has a Level 3 certificate (or equivalent) granted by a body recognised and regulated by... Ofqual.

Animal activity licensing process: statutory guidance

The guidance requires a vet for the first inspection of a dog breeder and for every inspection of a horse hiring business. It does not require one for dog day care. A council that sends a vet is buying in expertise it does not hold itself, and the licence holder pays for it. That is a choice, not a rule, which is why it is worth asking your council what its fee actually includes before you apply.

The Level 3 qualification

There must be a member of permanent, full-time staff with an appropriate Ofqual regulated Level 3 qualification.

Dog day care licensing: statutory guidance, higher standard

This is a higher standard, not a requirement to hold a licence, but without it a business cannot reach the higher standards and so cannot get a three-year licence. One example course, the IMDT Ofqual Level 3 Professional Day Care and Boarding award, was listed at £340 plus VAT and about 60 hours of study over two months in September 2026. The holder must be permanent and full-time, so a course paid for a part-timer does not count.

Holiday cover under the staff ratio

Every employer pays statutory holiday. What makes it dearer in a dog daycare is condition 4.1: each member of staff should have 10 dogs or less to care for. A shop can run one person short for a week. A daycare at ten to one cannot, because the ratio is on the licence. So every day someone is away, a second person is paid to stand in.

One full-time member of staff on the 2026 National Living Wage

Statutory holiday (Working Time Regulations 1998): 5.6 weeks, capped at 28 days
On a 40-hour week: 224 hours
At £12.71 an hour (from 1 April 2026): £2,847
Employer National Insurance, 15% above £5,000 a year: about £427
Minimum employer pension contribution, 3%: about £85
Holiday pay for the person away: about £3,360
Paying someone to stand in for the same 224 hours: about £6,700 a year

Two full-time staff is 56 shifts of cover a year, about £13,400 if every shift is paid cover. The NI figure applies the 15% rate to the £2,847 of holiday pay; the actual amount depends on the person's full salary.

Nobody puts that line in the business plan. It is not a licence fee, but it is a licence cost, and it is bigger than the fee every year.

What five stars costs

There must be at least one full-time member of staff per 8 dogs.

Dog day care licensing: statutory guidance, higher standard, section 4.0

The required standard is ten dogs per member of staff. The higher standard, needed for the stars that give a three-year licence, is eight. That is two fewer paying dogs for every person on the floor.

Two dogs per member of staff, at an example day rate of £30

2 dogs x £30: £60 a day
x 5 days: £300 a week
x 48 weeks: £14,400 a year per member of staff
Three staff on the floor: £43,200 a year

Turnover the ratio removes, not profit. Put your own day rate in. In return a five-star licence lasts three years instead of one, with at least one unannounced visit in that time instead of one a year.

The stars measure compliance with the standards, not accident rates. A five-star daycare meets more of the standards; it is not evidence that it is safer.

The space ceiling

each dog must have 6 square metres of space available to them within the premises - this can include inside and outside space

Dog day care licensing: statutory guidance, condition 4.1

Total space available to the dogs, inside and out, divided by six is the most dogs the premises can ever hold. The council can license fewer than that for staffing or layout reasons, and often does. It cannot license more.

A 120 square metre premises

120 square metres ÷ 6: 20 dogs maximum
Staff needed at 10 to 1: 2 on every shift
Staff needed at 8 to 1 (five stars): 3 on every shift
20 dogs x £30 x 5 days x 48 weeks: £144,000 a year at full occupancy

No daycare runs at full occupancy every day. The point is that the ceiling is fixed by the building: a daycare can only grow by building, and more building is a planning application.

Genera holds a daily capacity for each service and turns bookings past it into waitlist requests, so the licensed number is never crossed by accident. That is the one part of this page the software can do for you; the rest is the building and the wage bill. See Genera for dog daycares.

Questions people ask

How much is a dog daycare licence in the UK?: It is set by each council. Examples from 1 April 2026: Elmbridge £432 for a new licence and £380 for a renewal (five dogs or fewer), Test Valley £331, Liverpool £325. Bromley charges £159 admin plus a vet inspection of £488 or £666 plus a grant fee of £75 to £223 depending on licence length, so a three-year licence for more than ten dogs comes to £1,048 before a mid-term visit.
Why does holiday cover cost a dog daycare more than other businesses?: Because the staff ratio is a licence condition. A shop can run one person short for a week. A daycare at one person to ten dogs cannot, so every day of holiday is paid twice: once to the person away and once to the person standing in. At the 2026 National Living Wage that is about £6,700 a year per full-time member of staff.
Does a five-star dog daycare licence cost more to run?: Yes. The higher standard is one full-time member of staff per eight dogs instead of ten, so every member of staff on the floor is paired with two fewer paying dogs. At £30 a day, five days a week, 48 weeks a year, that is £14,400 of turnover per member of staff. In return a five-star licence lasts three years instead of one.
How many dogs can a dog daycare take?: The space rule sets the ceiling: total space available to the dogs, inside and outside, divided by six square metres. A 120 square metre premises works out at 20 dogs. The council can license fewer than the space allows, and the staff ratio then decides how many people you need on each shift.

Sources

Everything above comes from one of these. Each was read on 21 September 2026. If a figure has moved since, email info@generasoftware.com and the page is corrected, not appended.

Elmbridge Borough Council, animal licensing fees from 1 April 2026Day care for dogs, five or fewer: £432 new (£316 on application, £116 on grant), £380 renewal. Veterinary inspections where required charged separately.
London Borough of Bromley, animal licensing fees 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027Admin £159; vet inspection on new application £488 (fewer than 10 dogs) or £666 (more than 10); on renewal £400 or £488; grant £75 (1 year), £150 (2 years), £223 (3 years); mid-term unannounced vet visit £311.
Liverpool City Council, animal activity licence fees 2026£325 with no separate vet line.
Test Valley Borough Council, animal licensing fees 2026/27£331; veterinary inspections charged separately where required.
Dog day care licensing: statutory guidance for local authorities (Defra, updated 1 June 2026)Condition 4.1 (staff ratio and six square metres), the higher standards, condition 5.1 (fencing).
Animal activity licensing process: statutory guidance for local authorities (Defra, updated 1 June 2026)What councils may charge for, the fair and reasonable fees line, inspector qualifications, vet appointments, licence lengths.
National Living Wage from 1 April 2026 (Low Pay Commission, confirmed at the Autumn Budget, 26 November 2025)£12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over.
Working Time Regulations 1998, regulations 13 and 13A5.6 weeks' statutory holiday, capped at 28 days.
IMDT, Ofqual Level 3 Professional Day Care and Boarding course£340 plus VAT, about 60 hours over two months, as listed in September 2026.

Duncan

Founder of Genera and owner of Duncan's Dog Co

Duncan has run Duncan's Dog Co, a licensed dog daycare in Surrey, since 2011. Genera is the software he built to run it, shaped by what actually works day to day, not theory.

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Where Genera comes in

Genera is the booking and invoicing software Duncan built to run his own licensed daycare. It holds you to the daily numbers on your licence, keeps every dog's vaccination dates where an inspector can see them, and invoices the month from the bookings you actually took.

See it for daycares Pricing