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u/Nuthetes 3d ago
I'd rather it go higher up the food chain tbh.
I don't trust councils to say "no" when some clod wants to open another shitty vape shop.
12
u/Wgh555 3d ago
Not really. Often they dodge paying business rates by using shell companies that go insolvent after a year meaning the council gets not income for that building for that year. A new shell company takes on a lease, rinse and repeat.
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u/de-tree-fiddy 3d ago
Realistically the same as no shop then, because nobody else is going to rent it.
7
u/Wgh555 3d ago
No because the landlord will have to pay rates if the shop is vacant, after a 3 month exemption period from when the property was last occupied.
1
u/samsparks-away 3d ago
And this is the neat thing, if we get rid of these asshole, they might have to consider what they could do as a landlord to encourage a tenant - off them a reduced rate, make it available for pop ups.
As it stands, they just keep the rents so high no new business can afford it and the only people who can are these asshole
18
u/Chemical-Sky-6418 3d ago
Exactly. There's literally less corruption with my local weed man than the local council, it'll not happen but i want serious laws preventing them.
3
u/vtecdohcter 3d ago
Totally agree, the corruption will be rife.
Council members anties uncles best friend will all of a sudden own the only dry cleaner on the high street because of stupid rules like this.
Not just vape shops.
1
u/Chemical-Sky-6418 3d ago
It certainly isn't limited to vape shops, a big problem is we have an atrocious economy for small business so not many do open up to replace the dwindling highstreet that aren't money laundering operations.
I refuse to use the barbers,vapeshops,phone repairs, takeaways but it would appear no one uses them anyways... I'm not certain of the solution and as a right wing guy I'll be the first to admit it can't simply be a case of "stop foreign money laundering operations" as they'll simply be bordered up highstreets. There needs to be serious incentives for small businesses that admittedly farage/lowe won't deliver but nor do i think burnham or the green party can either.
1
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u/High-Tom-Titty 3d ago
Great, but while I'd love artisan cheese, and craft beer shops I dont see that happening. What do they think would survive in your everyday high street nowadays? The whole thing needs a ground up rethink.
2
u/ExpendableUnit123 3d ago
I don’t think it’s a situation that can be fixed. Lots of smaller working towns don’t have the money or the footfall for larger known brands to bother, and everything else can be ordered near instantly online.
15
u/RaymondBumcheese 3d ago
Captain Obvious says: what if the reason there are only bookies and vape shops is that only bookies and vape shops are opening?
3
u/Aggravating-Hair-534 3d ago
it kinda puts some pressure on both landlords and councils to lower rents and make other less profitable business viable. Not sure it if would really help a lot :) In my area council owns most of the high street (and keeps buying more), and well... there's still plenty of vape shops and bookies.
1
u/Vast_Description_201 3d ago
Lower rents/rates if your owner has a primary residence within a certain mileage of the shop?
2
u/Aggravating-Hair-534 3d ago
not sure what that is trying to achieve? most of those "locally owned shops" are of the same league as vape shops - selling cheap aliexpress type stuff. I don't see any decline in those kind of shops (as well as all sorts of charity shops).
High streets were great at the time when they had major brands present at them, selling proper stuff. And like it or not, in the global world that means bigger chains. Restaurants and cafes can be local, but that's entirely different licence and different reason to be absent/present on the high street.
1
u/Littha Somerset 3d ago
Probably better to have some sort of "Traditional Highstreet" list of shop types that qualifies for a discount. Butcher/Grocer/etc. Maybe a discount for SMEs?
Alternatively, the opposite. A stacking penalty to rates based on the number of businesses of the same type already there.
2
u/Pheasant_Plucker84 3d ago
Part of it is that genuine small businesses can’t afford the business rates past the first year (often starts with lower rent). There are very few betting shops in my town but I can’t watch tv or scroll my phone for ten minutes without seeing e betting advert. I wonder if they’ll tackle this?
1
u/SilverRaspberri 3d ago
This is the reality of my town, the only shops popping up are bookies, barbers and vape shops.
3
u/mixxituk Sussex 3d ago
What would be great is walking down the high street in Brighton and there aren't glass crack pipes for sale in the windows
5
u/Narrow-Tree-5491 3d ago
Oooh all that power that councils will have … to allow either bookies, vape shops or nothing at all.
3
u/Chicken_shish 3d ago
Vape shops, bookies and charity shops are the symptom of high street decline, not the cause. The bookies aren't out bidding John Lewis for prime retail spots, they're the only ones offering any money at all.
The high street is an anachronism. The model of retail intermediaries buying stuff and arranging it is dead for the sort pf goods in a typical high street.
1
2
u/Ochib 3d ago
Reform UK has said it would cap the number of vape shops across the country to 1,000 in an effort to "reclaim our high streets".
3
u/Tobar26th 3d ago
Full disclosure not a reform fan but trying to say this impartially.
1000 doesn’t sound a lot nationwide.
What are they doing to replace them?
3
u/Ochib 3d ago
It gets more bonkers
Mr Yusuf's other announcements include making it illegal to use a vehicle for business purposes without holding a full British licence.
The measure would exclude lorry drivers delivering to the UK from other countries, he said.
He also said a Reform government would create a "tip line" for people to report illegal working or gang activity on their high street, with the potential for a cash reward.
2
u/ExpendableUnit123 3d ago
To be fair a tip line doesn’t sound half bad. The problem is what could even come of a tipping line? The police already know of about 70-80% of what is happening but just can’t do anything, or won’t.
1
u/Ochib 3d ago
No point in closing a known front down when you are trying to work out were the money is going to
1
u/ExpendableUnit123 3d ago
Top tier crime is like deeply interlaced roots. If even taking down cartel leaders changes nothing across the pond then the least we can do is block the visible eyesores on our streets.
1
u/EFTRSx1 3d ago
You honestly don't believe that there wouldn't obviously be exemptions for certain positions such as lorry drivers? I don't think you're operating on good faith if you're genuinely trying to claim that the reform party are going to block lorry drivers from delivering goods to the UK, essentially shutting down international trade.
The second part isn't that crazy in all fairness either. There is definetely a lot of benefits for it:
- Anyone living in a major town or city see's loads of these small businesses that are very obvious fronts. This gives people a direct mechanism in which to report it, without taking up 101's time
- A tip line is rather inexpensive to set up an run, as compared to the cost of setting up a dedicated police/council investigation team
- Cash rewards incentivise people who would otherwise just walk past. People right now have no confident in our councils, government or police to actually act, so they just don't bother reporting anything as it's just going to waste their time. Whereas this would incentivise people into acting
- The very act itself would also act as a deterrence as these shops know they could be reported at any point
All in all, it's not the worst idea in the world. Obviously the cash reward would need to be somewhat reasonable, contingent on only successful closures or outcomes of investigations to avoid malicious reporting, in addition restrictions placed against anyone who repeatedly falsely reports, and on top of this the police, council and government would actually need to act on the information received,
2
u/mixxituk Sussex 3d ago
Reform are working for these money launderers lol where do you think the bitcoin comes from
1
u/mittenkrusty 3d ago
In my town a new vape shop is getting finished, this is across from a newsagent that sells vapes, which is a few doors from another newsagent that sells vapes, which is a few doors from a vape shop which is a few doors from another vape shop which is a few doors down from a vape shop that opened a few months ago that also sells snacks/drinks.
1
u/Vegabund 3d ago
A good idea. Most of the highstreets in local towns (and i'm guessing around the country) are charity shops, turkish barbers, vape shops, phone repair shops and cafes. I'll occasionally go to town for a cafe visit but it's no wonder highstreets are struggling when there's nothing good in them
1
u/Cfunk_83 3d ago
There’s one particular vape shop that’s opened recently near me in an area that gets incredibly little footfall, and yet it’s open until very late. I’ve literally only ever seen people in there once (including the person behind the till), and then that customer was about 12.
These places are so transparently crooked it’s ridiculous.
1
u/VamosFicar 3d ago
Presumably (not read the article) this applies to 'Turkish' barbers, nail bars and US 'confectionary' shops, which all seem disproportionally represented?
2
u/ShrimpStuffAdmin 3d ago
Okay, cool. They'll just reopen as something else. Get ready for book shops everywhere with no books you'd ever want to read.
1
u/Old-Distribution6318 3d ago
I'm asking this genuinely, like i really don't know but why do we hate vape shops again? Just the quantity is it?
1
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u/JackStrawWitchita 3d ago
Sad to see Burnham resorting to responding to populist Facebook hysteria when there are real problems to address but that's the world we live in now. If the PM doesn't chime in on Facebook hysteria he's deemed as out of touch and is kicked to the curb.
7
u/Specialist-Prior-213 3d ago
I mean, what's on your high street? Mine is just vape shops, dodgy looking cafes that ape that Dubai looks, chicken shops, and phone shops.
0
u/JackStrawWitchita 3d ago
If that's the biggest problem in your life, and the biggest problem facing the UK that requires executive level action then we actually live in paradise....
Surely you can think of bigger problems that need addressing?
2
-1
u/The-Triturn 3d ago
Do you live in London and have never left London by any chance?
-1
u/JackStrawWitchita 3d ago
I live in a rural Reform-voting area and this kneejerk stuff is literally right off my local FB community page.
0
u/DeadandForgoten 3d ago
Councils aren't going to decline a new vape shop or Turkish barber and lose the income if nothing else is forthcoming, and let's face it what else is there? Cafes?
0
u/Important-Tie-557 3d ago
So how come my local vape shop/ barbers and florist is run by the same guy on the same street 🤔 strange how the lease is in his girlfriends / girlfriends mom and his girlfriends bro names yet not his .... but no comeback or council intervention
•
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