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.

According to Grok, the National Crime Agency says the money that these shops launder primarily comes from:

Organized immigration crime/people smuggling.

Drug trafficking and distribution.

Modern slavery and human trafficking.

Illicit tobacco, vapes, and counterfeits.

Other organized crime.

And to avoid a Musk product, a link to info from the NCA direct. From April 2025, about 10 months after Labour were elected.

(just countering some of the “Labour won’t do anything, vote Reform” rhetoric)

www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/operation-machinize-hundreds-of-barbershops-targeted-in-nca-coordinated-crackdown

You can't just conduct surveillance on a shop because you think it's dodgy, there needs to be a justification. As you can see from that link, 84 warrants resulted in 35 arrests. The resources that have gone into that would've been huge and the admin that followed will probably go on for years for almost no return.

What "return" do the police etc get when they investigate a serious road accident or a murder?

Sometimes, these things are more important than just comparing "return" versus cost of resources.

Modern slavery, money laundering, drugs trade, illegal/counterfeit goods etc are MORE important than just raising revenue - they blight towns, the damage people, they cause anti social behaviour, feed into deprivation, etc.

Yes I agree completely, I'm just being pragmatic. From a tangible victim impact perspective, and if you asked people if they'd rather the police find a paedophile or close down 5 vape shops, then the answer is clear. They have to focus their resources accordingly. They would need to bring in far more resources to have an impact.

Also if the media keep banging on about "stopping the boats" then the resources have to be directed towards the boats to generate statistics that make people think they've achieved something ie. crossings are down this month, well done us.

Yes, but the authorities manage to use resources to "tackle" easy targets, i.e. several police officers to arrest someone saying "hurty things" on social media, resource intensive joint initiatives to catch drivers with no mot/no insurance/unsafe vehicles, etc.

I'm an accountant. Just today, received a formal enquiry notice for a client querying a single tax return figure, where the figure they claim to be correct results in an extra tax liability of just £32.70! The cost of time and effort to produce the enquiry letter cost more than that! I remember a full enquiry into a small business a few years ago where the tax inspector couldn't find anything in the huge box of receipts/invoices/bank statements (that they'd have spent at least a couple of days working through) that they told us to send them, so sent an utterly stupid request for our client to explain an "unexplained" banking that wasn't in their accounting records of, wait for it, £2.50!! The tax/nic on that would have been less than a pound! But their statistics would look bad if they couldn't find anything, so they "had to" find something, however small, to tick a box.

People are getting fed up with councils, tax authorities, police, and other governmental quangos/agencies obsessing about "easy targets" just to make their statistics look good. It's this kind of thing that has meant politicians etc have lost the trust of the public and drive the popularity of Farage/Reform and Restore/Lowe who seem the only politicians trying to effect change and challenge the civil service, quangos and other governmental bodies/public authorities who won't act on things that are blighting peoples' daily lives.

It's this kind of thing that has meant politicians etc have lost the trust of the public and drive the popularity of Farage/Reform and Restore/Lowe who seem the only politicians trying to effect change and challenge the civil service, quangos and other governmental bodies/public authorities who won't act on things that are blighting peoples' daily lives

Labour initiative:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-laws-to-shutdown-dodgy-high-street-shops-in-crime-crackdown

Farage? Trust? After all the payments he’s received?

Can I have some of what you are smoking??

Nige: tough on fraud, tough on money laundering, tough on benefitting from the proceeds of either…

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/06/reform-uk-nigel-farage-george-cottrell

In 2016 Cottrell was charged with 21 offences for his alleged role in a “dark money” laundering scheme. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and spent time in prison in Arizona, though he is seeking a pardon from Donald Trump.

Reform acknowledged on Sunday that gifts had been received from Cottrell but said they had been personal gifts to Farage unconnected with his political activities and so did not need to be disclosed.

Sigh.

I will post the link without comment and see if that stays…

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/06/reform-uk-nigel-farage-george-cottrell

And if you think that article shows how brilliant and trustworthy Reform will be on the subject of monetary crimes… well, I have a bridge I can sell you.

It would be fascinating to know which business profits from what crime most and why that is. Each niche is usually dominated by certain nationalities, so for example do the nail bars launder mainly drug money or is it people trafficking and from which countries are the people being trafficked from?

I understand this aspect.

But if I want to rent a house I have to go through all sorts of checks - right to live in the UK, bank statements etc, anti money-laundering.

So why do landlords not care with commercial tenants - and why are the obligations not the same.

And why do councils register companies for business rates without doing due diligence. Although I think I know the answer to that one, they just want the money and they don't have the staff to check - and if they did - they'd be subject to intimidation and threats.

A licensing scheme to sell vapes is on its way, but that won't resolve the mini markets or the other crap almost certainly money laundering outlets that blight our high streets.

You’re right, renting a home is vastly more regulated than commercial rental contracts if it’s so easy to open up a blatent money laundering front.

I’m not so sure.

Commercial landlords may well check ID and right to be in the country etc for the leaseholder. Rent would likely come from a UK bank account which the company or leaseholder would need to open - so the bank should also be doing AML checks.

But that wouldn’t stop the premises being used for crime thereafter, any more than your landlord doing those checks on you would stop you manufacturing fake Fendi bags or Chanel makeup in your spare room.

My DS was furious when a nice local butcher, where we often bought our meat, retired and a vape shop opened in its place.

Does he often get angry about things like that?

People retire and nobody with their own business is going to take on a high street unit, given the risks and costs. Why would they, when very few (if any) high street retail outlets can compete on prices, availability, service and product range? Shops open and close within a few months now.

Modern slavery in plain sight from the nail bars to the car washes.

Obviously brothels as well.

People working in them to pay back their passage to the UK, probably forever in some cases.

I'd read that there were grants being given out of £20k to start a business hence the barbers and vape shops, plus being a front for laundering drug money.

We also have two "Modern Home" type shops. Tacky vases, cushions and knock off toys. They don't have customers either.

If our old Zara with it's queues and customers (God rest it's soul) didn't find our town centre profitable then I have no idea how tacky shops are paying the bills.

Trouble is a lot of the landlords are part of the same gang/family/wider community, so landlords/tenants are often already known to each other. A good way of the landlord keeping "distance" and maintaining deniability if the tenant gets caught.

Just had to look up Zara as hadn’t heard of it. It looks like every other high street clothes shop!

I am quite surprised that you haven't heard of Zara. It launched in Spain in 1975, has over 2000 stores across over 90 countries including nearly 60 stores in the UK after it first opened on Regent Street in 1998.

Good points, I believe Warren Buffett once queried a dollar, or maybe five dollars, discrepancy on his tax and got a refund? Walking to my local Shop one day there were five or six police range rover type vehicles with blue lights going, it looked like a swat team for an armed incident, I went into the shop and asked the server what had happened - A couple of people had run in and run out with some stuff, they might have done the same at the shop two doors down - Holy Fuck, talk about misuse of resources.