Dawn chorus: Anti-gambling campaigning Dawn Butler, Labour MP Brent East, believes the campaign to give communities greater control over gambling premises has been won, writing in the Guardian this week that the government’s promise to scrap aim to permit represented a “huge victory” following years of campaigning.

• It is, however, a victory over government policy rather than the law as it currently stands.
• Before councils receive the powers Butler wants them to exercise, ministers must consult on the proposals, decide precisely how the licensing regime should change and secure the necessary legislation.

Smokescreen: The government is planning a six-week consultation and has said it wants its high street measures in place from the beginning of 2027. But that timetable may be more readily achievable for the planning changes affecting vape shops than for the removal of “aim to permit.”

• The latter is contained in section 153 of the Gambling Act 2005.
• It requires licensing authorities to aim to permit gambling premises where their operation accords with Gambling Commission codes and guidance, is reasonably consistent with the licensing objectives and complies with the authority’s own licensing policy.

Words matter: Dan Waugh, partner at Regulus Partners, said removing the principle would consequently require section 153 to be redrafted. Simply deleting the words would not resolve the question of what test councils should apply instead.

• “It cannot simply be removed. It will have to be replaced with something and we don’t know what,” he said. “I am guessing it will also require parliamentary time.”
• That replacement will determine the practical significance of the reform.
• A new test could give authorities greater scope to consider the concentration or perceived social effects of gambling premises.

• But the extent of that discretion – and the evidence councils would need to justify refusals – will depend on the eventual wording.

You have the power: Waugh also disputed the suggestion that authorities are currently powerless. He cited recent refusals in Sheffield and Haringey and told C+Mthat, according to Hansard, 85 planning applications had been refused, with 26 of those decisions upheld on appeal.

• In his view, aim to permit protects lawful businesses and minority interests from decisions based principally on councillors’ personal objections to gambling.
• It requires authorities to permit a legal activity when an application satisfies the relevant regulatory tests, rather than allowing applications to be rejected because gambling itself is unpopular.

Reclaim the streets: Butler’s Guardian article presented the principle differently, arguing it had left councils working against a presumption in favor of gambling premises and allowed the industry to expand “largely unchecked.”

• She urged residents to “use these new powers” to reclaim their high streets, although those powers have so far only been announced.
• Her argument also combines betting shops, casinos and AGCs within a wider narrative about the proliferation of gambling venues.
• That obscures an important distinction. AGCs have actually declined slightly in the last 10 years while the number of betting shops has fallen from almost 9,000 in 2015 to fewer than 5,900.
• Indeed, on the Evoke earnings call yesterday, the company noted how its William Hill estate had fallen to 1,024 shops versus 1,302 a year earlier.

Andrew Lyman, Gibraltar’s Gambling Commissioner and a former director of regulatory affairs at William Hill, described the announcement on LinkedIn as a political “deflection” that ignored the substantial decline in betting shop numbers.

• He noted that bookmakers had argued against the removal of the previous demand test during the development of the 2005 Act.
• That liberalization, he suggested, contributed to the subsequent race for betting shop locations before commercial and regulatory pressures drove numbers down again.

Regeneration X: Lyman also questioned whether restricting lawful premises would regenerate high streets. Councils can prevent particular developments, he said, but replacing closed businesses ultimately depends on private investment and consumer demand.

• Betting shops are already subject to the same pressures from online commerce, business rates and changing consumer habits affecting other retail operators.

Welcome to the jungle: The task of potentially revisiting the Gambling Act and getting any legislation through parliament will fall to the newly-announced minister with responsibility for gambling, Vicki Foxcroft.

• Here appointment was announced this week and was welcomed by the Betting & Gaming Council which noted her “support for regulation that is properly targeted and fit for purpose.”

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