Here is a copy of Practical Caravans own guide contained on this website which I reproduce here......
Licence gained after 1 January 1997
If you gained your licence on or after 1 January 1997, then you will be restricted to driving or towing with a car (or light commercial vehicle) with a maximum weight of 3500kg. Note this is not the actual weight as loaded, but the vehicle's maximum allowable weight, or gross vehicle weight, as set by the manufacturers - you will find this in your car's handbook.
You can tow a trailer or caravan with this licence, but its maximum weight must not exceed 750kg - giving a total possible maximum outfit weight of 4250kg. If you wish to pull a caravan weighing more than 750kg (in practice, this covers all conventional caravans), you must follow the restriction that the maximum allowed weight of the car-plus-caravan combination weighs no more than 3500kg, and that the caravan's maximum weight does not exceed 100 percent of the car's unladen weight (this is not the same as the car's kerbweight - have a look at the panel on this page for a full explanation).
What makes this rule appear rather odd is that if you wish to tow a trailer that weighs over 750kg, you actually end up with a lower total limit for the car-plus-caravan outfit than you would if you were towing a trailer under 750kg, where the total can be 4250kg.
If you want to exceed any of the above limits, you need to take a further driving test. For post-1997 drivers, a B+E test (E refers to entitlement to tow trailers over 750kg) can be arranged to give you the same rights as the pre-1997 car driver. It is not a hard test for a seasoned caravanner, but a novice would need some instruction. Professional tuition is advisable but not compulsory, though you will need to do a lot of homework on the test details and minimum test vehicle requirements if you do this yourself. Some test details are available to view on the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) website (www.dsa.gov.uk - go to the Learners' section) and on the Driving Instructors Association (DIA) (www.driving.org, which has a search facility for driving instructors by postcode).
Tests take place at Goods Vehicle Test Centres, but finding an instructor to help you practice may be hard. For advice on finding tuition and on arranging a test, your best bet would be to contact the DSA or DIA.
There are currently European Union (EU) proposals to change the maximum weight of trailers that can be towed by a car licence holder - at least so the regulations are easier to understand - so although existing rights will probably be preserved, future licence entitlements may well be different from those that currently exist. Concerned that any further changes will be a disincentive for young caravanners, the caravan industry in the UK is campaigning for 'no change', or at least only a minimal change, but as this article goes to press the outcome is still undecided.
http://www.practicalcaravan.com/features/caravanlaw.html
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