What a dog daycare licence costs in England, and the costs it hides
Short answer
A new dog day care licence in England costs from about £180 to over £1,400 in council fees in 2026 for commercial premises, and the middle council charges about £450. Each council sets its own fee, so the same national licence costs £181 in Portsmouth and £1,410 in Westminster. Daycare at home can cost less. A five-star licence lasts three years, so where the fee is flat it costs a third as much per year. The bigger costs are the conditions: one member of staff to ten dogs and six square metres per dog.
- £181Portsmouth, 2026/27
- £1,410Westminster, 2026/27
- £144Elmbridge, £432 over 3 years
- £6,700Pay plus a stand-in
The council fee
Like for like, a new dog day care licence for commercial premises costs from £181 in Portsmouth to £1,410 in Westminster. Daycare run from a home can cost less: £107 in Hull. Kirklees charges £1,951 for a three-year licence paid up front, and the middle council charges about £445. It is the same national licence everywhere. Each council sets its own fee, and the process guidance only asks that it be “fair and reasonable” and cover the application, inspections, compliance checks and enforcement. So the price depends on which side of a boundary the building stands.
| Council | New licence | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Hull | £107 to £297 | Commercial premises £208 (1 year) or £297 (2 years); daycare at home £107 or £138. Prices exclude VAT. 2026/27. |
| Walsall | £125 or £160 | £125 is the line for 'home boarding and day care for dogs', which may mean daycare at home. A commercial day care may pay the £160 boarding line. The page gives no fee year. |
| Bradford | £125.30 | Single 'Animal boarding' fee, which the council says covers day care for dogs. The page does not say whether this is the whole licence or the application fee. 2026/27. |
| Ipswich | £131 | £83 application plus £48 on grant, new or renewal. The schedule the council's fees page links prints no fee year (it is dated 2024). |
| Blackpool | £140 | Single application fee for the animal boarding licence, which the page says covers day care for dogs. The council notes the fee is subject to change and the page gives no fee year; its 2022/23 fee schedule shows the same £140. |
| Kirklees | £819 to £1,951 | £253 application consideration fee plus a licence fee of £566 (1 year), £1,132 (2 years) or £1,698 (3 years), paid once granted. No vet fee for day care; no separate renewal fee listed; year not stated. |
| Westminster | £1,410 | New Doggy Day Care licence: Part A £1,120 plus Part B £290. Renewal £904. Effective from 1 April 2026. |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | £1,079 or £1,363 | £1,079 for up to 10 dogs, £1,363 for more than 10, which is where most commercial daycares sit. Renewal £990 or £1,185. 2026/27. |
| Kensington and Chelsea | £1,202 to £1,350 | Dog day care grant: Part A £712 plus Part B £490, with a £148 supplement for more than 10 dogs. Renewal is £967 (plus £74 for more than 10 dogs). Fees from 1 April 2026. |
| Hounslow | £498 to £1,308.50 | £498 is the rate for daycare at home. A commercial day care licence starts at £763.50. The page gives no fee year. |
Every council we could find, with a map, a search box and a link to each fee page, is in the dog daycare licence fees by council table. The biggest single difference is whether the council sends a vet and passes the bill on: Bromley charges £159 admin, a vet inspection of £488 or £666 and a grant fee of £75 to £223, so a three-year licence for more than ten dogs is £1,048 before its £311 mid-term vet visit.
What it costs a year, by star rating
The star rating sets how long the licence lasts: one year at one or two stars, two years at three or four, three years at five. The fee is paid each time the licence is granted, so a better rating can make each year cheaper. How much cheaper depends on how the council prices it.
| Council | How it prices | 1 or 2 stars (1 year) | 3 or 4 stars (2 years) | 5 stars (3 years) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mole Valley | One fee, any length | £286.50 | £143.25 | £95.50 |
| Elmbridge | One fee, five dogs or fewer | £432 | £216 | £144 |
| Epsom and Ewell | £220 plus £445, £530 or £695 by length | £665 | £375 | £305 |
| Kirklees | £253 plus £566 for each year | £819 | £692.50 | £650.33 |
Where the council charges one fee whatever the length, five stars cuts the yearly cost to a third: £432 a year in Elmbridge becomes £144. Where it charges for every year, as Kirklees does, five stars saves only the application part. Renewal fees are often lower than these new-licence figures; the full table shows them where the council publishes them.
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.
The Level 3 qualification
There must be a member of permanent, full-time staff with an appropriate Ofqual regulated Level 3 qualification.
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.
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 space ceiling
each dog must have 6 square metres of space available to them within the premises - this can include inside and outside space
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.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
The 2018 English regulations, and everything above, apply in England only.
Scotland. Dog day care is licensed by the council as animal boarding under the Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963, and the licence lasts one year. Falkirk Council, for example, says you need an annual licence “to run a boarding kennel, day care facility or cattery” and charges £320.30. Scotland's 2021 licensing regulations cover breeding, selling and rehoming but not boarding; the Scottish Government has consulted on bringing boarding into them.
Wales. Also the 1963 Act, through the council, renewed every year. The Vale of Glamorgan charges £275 for an animal boarding establishment licence, runs it from 1 January to 31 December, and has its own commercial day care application form and conditions.
Northern Ireland. GOV.UK sends anyone running a boarding kennel or cattery to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), with a licence renewed every year. It publishes no fee and does not mention day care, so ask DAERA and your council before you open.
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
QHow much does a dog daycare licence cost?
QIs a dog daycare licence a yearly cost?
QDo I need a licence to run a dog daycare from home?
QDo you need a dog daycare licence in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?
QWhy does holiday cover cost a dog daycare more than other businesses?
QHow many dogs can a dog daycare take?
Sources
- Genera: dog daycare licence fees by council, read 22 September to 12 October 2026
- Falkirk Council, animal boarding licence
- Vale of Glamorgan Council, animal boarding establishment licence
- GOV.UK, animal boarding establishment licence (Northern Ireland)
- Kirklees Council, animal welfare licensing
- Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, fees and charges 2026/27, Appendix 2
- Elmbridge Borough Council, animal licensing fees from 1 April 2026
- London Borough of Bromley, animal licensing fees 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027
- Liverpool City Council, animal activity licence fees 2026
- Test Valley Borough Council, animal licensing fees 2026/27
- Dog day care licensing: statutory guidance for local authorities (Defra, updated 1 June 2026)
- Animal activity licensing process: statutory guidance for local authorities (Defra, updated 1 June 2026)
- National Living Wage from 1 April 2026 (Low Pay Commission, confirmed at the Autumn Budget, 26 November 2025)
- Working Time Regulations 1998, regulations 13 and 13A
- IMDT, Ofqual Level 3 Professional Day Care and Boarding course
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.
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.