New vape shops will require planning permission and councils will get more powers to stop betting shops, under government plans aimed at improving high streets.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said town centres had been “hollowed out” by decades of decline and “for many people, the high streets they grew up with have become unrecognisable”…
The Conservatives and Reform said the proposals would lead to “more empty” shops, without tax relief for other small businesses. Burnham said the measures will give councils more power to control what businesses open in town centres…
The plans announced by the government include…scrapping a rule known as “aim to permit”, which currently restricts councils’ ability to refuse new betting shops and 24-hour slot machine shops.
