Why do councils approve so many vape shops on the high street?

[JoyousOpalLemur]

Am I the only one completely baffled by this? I walked down my high street yesterday and another new vape (and sweets) shop has opened. There are now four vape shops that have opened in the last two years! They all seem to be permanently empty.

Why are councils granting planning permission for these shops?

One of the lead stories on the BBC last week was about how at least half of vape shops are linked to organised crime, particularly people and drug smuggling, and money laundering. Apparently many of the vapes they sell are also illegal and many sell tobacco to children.

It's not just the vape shops, three Turkish barbers have opened in the last decade (usually half empty), and three nail bars (to be fair, they tend to be quite busy) since Covid, which also have well known links to laundering the money made from people smuggling.

If councils are so keen on regeneration and local economies, why approve change-of-use for businesses that research shows are disproportionately tied to serious crime? Legitimate businesses are struggling, while these cash-heavy operations seem to get a free pass.

With also several young male Uber Eats riders parked down the high street, it doesn't feel a particularly safe space anymore.

Do councils even consider the crime angle when approving these applications, or is it just about filling empty units at any cost?

TIA for any insights or experiences.

It was always going to happen but once COVID hit, online firms came into their own.

There is no incentive to go shopping in the high street when prices are usually lower, ranges of items are huge and you can get it delivered the same day.

The high street hasn’t adapted to the new order of things and it’s too late now. Many people aren’t prepared to spend more in time and money to bring it back.

If a premises is already classed as a shop then no permission is needed for whatever type of shop. If the building isn’t owned by the council then it’s up to the building owner who they lease it to.

I agree. Everyone knows and nothing happens. Nail shops and car washes staffed by slave Labour. Vape shops and barbers, mini marts etc. fronts for money laundering.

When the public see a blind eye turned to crime, it just adds to the general downward spiral across the country. Very sad.

Even it there were an abundance of people wanting to open shops, they wouldn't be open at the time or on the days when their might be customers. I get fed up of making trips to buy, after checking that I'm within the advertised trading hours, only to find the shop is closed, sometimes with a scrawled sign that says "back in 10 minutes" with no indication when the 10 minutes ends, if I return 2 hours later, the sign will still be there and the shop will still be closed. I can only presume that the owners have an alternative source of income, maybe the ideal cover for money laundering is a shop selling (or not) handmade gifts, while the authorities are concentrating on barbers and nail bars.

@Somersetbaker maybe - agree it would be more useful to put 'back at 3pm' or whatever.

But small independent shops can rarely afford two staff throughout the day, so there will be times that they have to go (child being sent home sick from school or whatever) and that means closing.

They don't. Most commercial units are privately owned and Councils have no say who they are leased to. The ignorance here on the thread is outstanding.

Most posters have said exactly what you have said about the limits of council power.

No one buys vapes in these shops, they sell knock off cheap cigarettes.

And they are always empty !

I smell a rat.....

They don’t - shops have retail planning permission, what kind of shop opens in them is not the decision of the council.

This ^

When people say the powers that be should do something - what exactly do you want them to do unless someone is actually reporting something? You can't launch an investigation because a vape or barber shop is empty when you walk past it, you'd need a lead to start something off. It's good advice to report something tangible to HMRC or Crimestoppers to help build a case, but money laundering is one of the most complex crimes to prove.

Yes most, not all. You see it all over Facebook too. There really is a lack of awareness. The small town I live near has people lambasting the Council because they'd like a Primark 😆. Don't get me wrong, there are many issues in Local Government. But there are posters on this thread, and the OP, trying to place blame where's there no responsibility.

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/money-laundering-and-illicit-finance/suspicious-activity-reports

SARs can also be submitted by private individuals where they have suspicion or knowledge of money laundering or terrorist financing.

SARs are not crime reports, and submitting a SAR does not replace the need to make a crime report to the police or report the matter to another relevant government department or organisation. If you want to report a crime other than fraud, call the police on 101. To report a fraud, contact Report Fraud at https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/ or call 0300 123 2040. For a list of other reporting routes, please see the UKFIU SARs Best Practice Guidance - Chapter 2: Submitting a Good Quality SAR (Appendix).

I think the Gov must be very happy with all these dodgy shops as I can't find a simple way of actually reporting them.

Something I find fascinating about this thread is I saw something on Mumsnet expressing concern about the rise of Turkish barbers and vape shops less than 18 months ago and about 50% of the replies were calling the OP racist and / or mocking her for noticing this change or thinking it was a problem.

There is some disagreement on this thread but not one person has said the rise in vape shops and barbers is not happening or it is happening and it's a good thing.

There is something very Mumsnet about this - people talk about something, others call them racist or far right and try to censor them, and then the issue they were talking about becomes undeniable.

I just wish society hadn't had the same approach and had done something to stop these shops before they sprung up everywhere.

A big part of the problem is people - indeed posters here - saying “you can’t doooo anything.”

Well then there needs to be action so that you can do something.

Atm trading standards is an arm of the council. I know someone whose dw works as a tso. He said that the shop staff can be threatening, they close when they turn up, contraband/cash is concealed under the floor/in false walls.

There needs to be joined up action between the police, revenue and councils. Shrugging or just picking on low-hanging fruit (I was on council; saw it first hand) is dereliction of duty to the public.

@MaturingCheeseballI work in a field loosely linked to this. Trading Standards are and arm of the Council and yes, enforcing Licensing adherence is too. But the OP posted about "approving". Even where Councils try and crack down on this activity (and they do), as you say it is fraught with issues. Enforcement and compliance are acting after the horse has bolted. Private landlords are mainly responsible for the decline of the high street and a change in consumer habits and behaviours. Councils do have some limited power with enforcement, but it's rarely enough or allows a proactive approach and frankly, they aren't resourced or any where near funded well enough for it. The law doesn't stretch far enough to allow Councils to tackle this fully. That's what people are explaining, not that "nothing can be done".

There have been intensification weeks by all forces looking at tackling this but the problem is huge. It's also difficult to enact legislation against it without it having a knock on effect on genuine high Street businesses.
https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/police-crackdown-on-organised-immigration-crime-first-in-multi-agency-operation-of-its-kind

Unfortunately there are not limitless resources to tackle this, and crimes with more "tangible" victims will always take precedence. Individuals should absolutely submit Crimestopper reports and SARs is they have genuine concerns.

They have no say in the matter. They don't require any specific type of licence - same as most retail premises.

The only way a council could do this is if they are the landlord. Or if there is a change of use (e.g. from a takeaway to retail)

Till receipts are easy to provide if requested, just ring through loads of payments every day and provide the rolls to the VAT man if requested. And no, of course it's not illegal to refuse card payments!

OP, I contacted our local council about a hideous ‘International Store’ which opened up just a few doors down from two established and genuine convenience stores. There is zero business case for this store. The International Store sells nothing fresh and it’s mainly vapes and energy drinks. I have never seen seen a customer go in. It’s right next to a ‘Turkish Barber’ and it seems that the same blokes (only men) work at both. They always have some one sitting outside watching. Sometimes a dodgy looking Mercedes pulls up and parks in front on the pavement. I am sure it is all money laundering and crime.

The council said there was nothing they can do.

What frustrates me is the lack of solutions being offered and no effort to stop these criminal enterprises. I would like to see a national policing and planning effort, where these shops are closed down. It will take specific skills and maybe new laws, and there should be specialist units trained centrally and then addressing the issue nationally, town by town.

Labour will not do anything about this. Will the conservatives? Or do we have to vote for the dreadful Reform party to remove organised crime from our high streets?

Well Reform do want us to leave the ECHR which would certainly make the constant surveillance without authority needed to tackle this a lot easier. There seems to be a Venn diagram of Reform voters who hate surveillance though so not sure what they think leaving the ECHR would bring.

@Trainstrike

I don’t think it would take surveillance to stop them. They would need:

1. details of the leaseholder
2. financial details given to the landlord to establish ability to pay rent
3. names of the directors (lease will certainly be a company)
4. names of the shareholders
5. cross check tax filings with hmrc
6. cross check police records for known criminal connections
7. cross check immigration records for employee immigration and right to work status

Just these initial steps would reveal a significant amount of information alone. My expectation is that they would reveal clusters of the same names and probably would quickly establish connections to criminality.

It's so frustrating. The people smugglers must know that the British people can't do anything to stop them doing this, so publicise it around the world to people as an incentive to come here.

I can't believe how weak we've become as a country that we're not capable of stopping something we can clearly see is illegal and immoral.