Andy Burnham has announced plans to give councils greater powers to block new betting shops and vape stores as part of a government drive to revive Britain's declining high streets. The changes will scrap the "aim to permit" rule, introduced under Tony Blair's gambling law reforms in 2005, which currently restricts town halls' ability to refuse licences to gambling premises. The move matters because it hands local authorities more control over the character of their town centres, which the government says have been "hollowed out" by the spread of vape shops, betting shops and other rogue operators.

Under the plans, new vape shops will need planning approval from next year, with the legal definition of such stores tightened to stop retailers dodging rules by calling themselves "convenience stores", while venues running 24-hour slot machines will also require planning consent. Police will gain power to close "dodgy" barbers, vape shops and nail salons for up to a year, double the current limit, to probe links to organised crime. The Centre for Social Justice, which found nearly 1,800 pubs have closed while vape and tobacco shops rose to almost 2,200 since 2016, welcomed the reforms, though shadow local government secretary Sir James Cleverly blamed Labour's business rate rises for high street decline and called for rate cuts instead.