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:

• Sign in to or sign up to our citizen portal and complete the "house to house collection permit" application (this can be found in the "request new licence" section of the portal).
• Please ensure you attach 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.