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”.

BBC News has exposed organised crime on high streets across the country, revealing shops selling illegal cigarettes and vapes, selling cannabis and cocaine, enabling illegal working and suspected money-laundering.

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 proposals come as the prime minister embarks on a tour of the UK, with Downing Street saying he will be in “listening mode” during his visits as he works on a “10-year plan to bring back hope”.

The plans announced by the government include:

The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that at least £1bn of criminal cash is laundered through high street stores in the UK each year through businesses connected to the sale of fake goods, tax evasion, illegal working and illegal drug supply.

Burnham said “the rise of vape shops, betting shops and rogue operators have replaced the shops, services, and community spaces that people are crying out for”.

He added: “That’s not on. I said we would improve Britain’s high streets, and that’s exactly what we are starting to do.

“We’re putting communities back in control and giving local people a real say over what opens on their high street.”

In response to the announcement, Conservative shadow communities secretary Sir James Cleverly said “once-treasured shops” have been replaced by a “smattering of rogue operators”.

But Sir James said increases to business rates by Labour had left “empty units for whoever is left standing to fill”.

He said: “Unless the government takes steps to support the high streets and hard-working businesses, Labour’s increases in planning regulation will just mean more empty and boarded up shops.”

For the Liberal Democrats, home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson said Burnham’s plan “could go up in a puff of smoke” unless he toughens up powers to “properly crack down on cowboy vape shops and dodgy operators”.

His calls included asking the prime minister to scrap the business rates system.

Reform UK economy spokesman Robert Jenrick said: “Until this government scraps the jobs tax, addresses sky-high business rates and provides real, fundamental support for high street businesses, this policy will only create even more empty shops on our high streets.”

A Green Party spokesperson said the government’s proposals “look like more inadequate tinkering and reannouncements”.

They called on the prime minister to “go further and allow councils to introduce rent controls for small businesses”.

The Betting and Gaming Council said it supports “tough action against criminal operator” and agrees “local people should have a proper say over their high streets”.

A spokesperson for the industry body added it was “simply wrong” to suggest that betting shops are spreading “unchecked”, adding around 3,000 shops have closed since 2019.

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, who chairs the Local Government Association, said it was “positive” that councils and communities “will get a greater say on what shops and services are found on their high streets”.

For 18 months, BBC News has reported on high street organised crime, including drug gangs, money laundering, child sexual exploitation reports, immigration crime and ghost directors linked to shop fronts selling illegal cigarettes and illegal vapes.

In April 2025, the BBC joined the NCA as it raided barbers, mini-marts and vape shops in response to growing intelligence reports that some of these shops were being used for money laundering and illegal working.

In May and June of last year, the team found secret underground tunnels supplying sacks of illegal cigarettes to high street mini-marts in Hull.

In July last year, mass Freedom of Information requests revealed for the first time that 3,700 illegal shops had operated across the UK.

In November, the BBC exposed asylum seekers buying and selling high street mini-marts for cash and criminal kingpins erasing £60,000 illegal working fines, and revealed a Kurdish organised crime gang operating on high streets the length of Britain.

In response, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood launched an “urgent” investigation led by the NCA, Immigration Enforcement, HMRC and police forces from across the country.

She said the BBC’s evidence proved that “the system was broken” and demonstrated a pull factor in the small boat crisis.

In March the BBC revealed a senior council worker had repeatedly shared with West Midlands authorities reports of children as young as 11 being sexually abused in high street mini-marts, and last month undercover reports exposed how cocaine, cannabis, laughing gas and prescription pills were being offered for sale.

One street visited in the West Midlands was described as “lawless” by an anonymous law enforcement source.

After the report, six mini-marts and vape shops on one high street in Cradely Heath, Sandwell were forced to close following an investigation by police and Trading Standards.

Earlier this year, ministers announced a £30m enforcement operation targeting high street businesses suspected of money laundering, tax evasion and illegal working.

Raids involving police, HMRC, Trading Standards and Immigration Enforcement have since taken place across the country.

Additional reporting by Richard Wheeler