Street trading and charity collections

Apply for a house-to-house collection licence

You must apply for a licence if you want to collect money or goods (that you plan to sell at a later date) from people’s homes for charity. This also includes Public House to Public House.

Your organisation may be eligible for a Home Office Exemption. These are usually given to charities working at a national level. Check the government's list of National Exemption Order holders.

To apply for a house-to-house collection licence, you need to complete the following steps:

• Complete our online application form and print it
• Return the form to us along with a letter of authorisation from the charity if you are a registered company collecting clothing or other objects and if possible previous examples of the method of raising income.
• Charities or local good causes can apply for a permit to collect door to door.

Apply for a house-to-house collection licence

After you apply

You cannot run your collection until you have been granted a licence. If you have not heard from us within a reasonable period, please contact Licensing.

Once you have run your collection, you must fill out and return the Form of Statement to us within 1 month of the collection.