Licensing means bugger all, to be frank. It doesn't mean that the parent dogs have been health tested, or that the puppies are given lots of human attention and the started on their socialisation. It just means that the premises are clean, more-or-less escape-proof, that there is a fire plan, that medicines are stored correctly, etc etc.
Personally I have no issue with people breeding crosses provided they do any necessary health tests (i.e. hips, elbows, for any recessive illnesses carried by both parent breeds), breed with an eye to conformation and temperament, have buyers lined up, care properly for the puppies, have only a handful of dogs rather than running a huge barn of breeding bitches who they get rid off when they start to get 'too old', and the dogs they have are properly cared for, exercised, trained and fulfilled. It's making sure that those criteria are met that is difficult, and licensing doesn't even begin to touch that. In fact, if you look at licensed breeders on council websites, you'll see how big some of them are.
As for breeds, you might look at some of the lower-drive terriers like Westies - though they do bark - Norfolks etc. Farm-bred Jack Russells are wonderful dogs, but they tend to have enormous prey drive and can be complete little shits (I speak from love and experience!), so avoid them if you want a quiet life. Whippets are very sweet dogs and generally very chilled - just look at the lines if you want to try and avoid serious prey drive. Miniature pinschers are also nice dogs, in my limited experience of them.
ETA, scrub the bit about looking at licences to see how many breeding bitches a breeder has. This information used to show up, but it doesn't any longer on the handful of council websites I've just looked at.