High Street Shops: Illicit Activity

We have 10 or 12 people, including the Minister and Opposition spokespersons, wishing to speak. There are lots of people here, and I am sure there will be lots of interventions. I will therefore impose a four minute limit on speeches, but that will have to be reduced if we have too many interventions. I have fired the starting gun.

I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of tackling illicit activity in high street shops.

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. Before I start, I want to put on the record my thanks to my hon. Friends the Members for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) and for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt), who have been leading the dodgy shops campaign in Parliament. I am pleased to see that there are 50 MPs working to support this important issue. My hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes could not make it here today, but I will raise some of the issues that she asked me to raise.

High streets are at the centre of our communities. When our constituents look at them, they judge how our towns feel and how they feel about our towns. In Halesowen constituency, people want to see our high streets succeed. We have many independent and successful shops such as Bella’s Beautiful Things in Halesowen, Betty Stitchkit in Quarry Bank, and Cradley Heath DIY in Cradley Heath. We also have fantastic community groups that work hard to make our towns beautiful, such as Halesowen in Bloom and Cradley Heath and Old Hill in Bloom, whose volunteers do fantastic work.

But the truth is that, as the challenges to retail have increased, old established shops are closing and new shops are popping up in their place: vape shops, mini markets and barbers. Although the majority of those shops are perfectly legitimate, there is increasing evidence that what the public suspect is true: many are involved in money laundering, counterfeit goods and other criminality. In fact, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, whose members are on high streets every day, tells me that in some areas up to half of mini markets and vape shops have links to organised crime.

It is shocking that, in some hotspot areas, 50% of convenience stores or vape shops are linked to organised crime. My constituents in Derby South are really fed up with that, and so are legitimate business owners. Does my hon. Friend think it is time to crack down and shut down these dodgy shops once and for all?

Absolutely. My hon. Friend is completely right that we need to tackle those dodgy shops. I am pleased that the Government have made a range of announcements on that, but I will make further suggestions for where we might go even further.

We see dodgy shops in Derby, and we do not just have to take the word of the CTSI. My constituents saw with their own eyes on the BBC in April that there was drug dealing in the open on Cradley Heath High Street.

My hon. Friend is right that dodgy shops and mini marts are often a front for organised crime, particularly drug dealing, but also for the sexual and criminal exploitation of children, which we sadly know all too much about in Rochdale. I am delighted that the Government have listened to experts such as Rochdale trading standards on extending closure orders from three months to a year, and that they are looking closely at doing that. But there is also a big issue in my local shops of drug paraphernalia being sold next to sweets, and of drugs in resealable bags designed to look exactly like sweet wrappers. Does he agree that the Government should look at the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 so that trading standards can intervene on this?

I am glad my hon. Friend raised that issue. He shared with me some photographs of paraphernalia that looks just like a packet of Skittles or a packet of sweets. It is completely unacceptable that we allow businesses to market these things, which only encourage illegality, to children.

In my constituency, an undercover reporter was able to buy cannabis, cocaine and prescription drugs over the counter right in the centre of our towns. Although the police have taken action and there have been a number of arrests, we should not have to wait for the BBC to expose a crime for action to be taken. My constituents ask, “Why is this shop, which has been so publicly exposed as dealing drugs, still open?” I do not yet have a satisfactory answer.

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate. On 17 July 2025, trading standards closed an illicit vape shop on Honiton High Street and seized a large amount of illicit tobacco. Does he think that this change in the law, which allows the closure of shops for 12 months rather than just three, will mean that these shops might close altogether?

Yes. It is a really positive development, because it allows His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, trading standards and the police to investigate properly in those 12 months and build a case so that they can go after not just the shop but the people behind it.

On Cradley Heath High Street, there is something that sits right in our faces: we have 12 mini markets and vape shops right opposite the largest Tesco in the area. Although last year the Chartered Trading Standards Institute ranked Birmingham as the country’s No. 1 hotspot for dodgy shops, it is undeniable that the problem is going over the border into the Black Country and affecting our area.

Hotspot teams are looking at this issue in certain areas, but does my hon. Friend agree that it is also a problem in rural and coastal areas, such as mine in Falmouth? The problem is spreading across the country—he talks about it moving into the Black Country—so perhaps we should look at extending the hotspot areas much wider.

My hon. Friend makes a really good point about the challenges that seaside towns face. I agree that this blight is affecting the whole country, so we need to look at all the hotspots.

The impacts of this problem are really big. Organised crime costs the UK £47 billion each year. Money from the economy that could be invested in the private sector or public services instead goes into organised crime, funding violence, people smuggling and other criminal activity. The local impacts are really serious, too. Legitimate traders are seeing footfall decrease, as law abiding people avoid towns. Parents are worried that their children can buy vapes and laughing gas under age, in the open. Local residents fear for their safety when they see knife crime and other criminality spilling out of these businesses. Our high streets are the heart of our towns, and our communities care deeply when crime starts to encroach upon them.

However, there has been real progress. I welcome what the Government have achieved in the last few months. There has been a series of very positive announcements, responding to the calls from our communities to do something about these dodgy shops.

Since the recent fire on Union Street in my constituency, there has been a lot of focus on illicit vape shops, and there have been calls for further legislation. We will see what the investigation says, and then action may need to be taken. Does my hon. Friend agree that this is about not just legislation but enforcement and having the resources available? I would welcome extra resources to ensure enforcement can take place.

My hon. Friend makes a really important point. Local authority trading standards were underfunded and under resourced by between 30% and 40%, according to some estimates, during the 14 years of Conservative government. Local authorities and the police need resources to tackle this crime.

I will give some good statistics. The National Crime Agency’s Operation Machinize has led to 3,000 premises being raided and close to 1,000 arrests. The £30 million that the Government are investing in tougher enforcement with the new high street organised crime unit is also welcome.

There are many issues that enable these shops to operate, so it is important that all agencies work together: the Home Office, trading standards, the NCA, HMRC, immigration enforcement and local police. Immigration enforcement is important because, as has been mentioned before, we see evidence that asylum seekers are being employed and exploited in these shops. They are sometimes being paid only £4 an hour, which is completely unacceptable.

The new unit gives me real hope that we can achieve co ordination, and that organised crime groups will not fall through the gaps between agencies and will face the full force of the law. We have talked about resources. Seventy five new police officers have been recruited, and there are extra resources for customs and trading standards to prioritise the work. The tougher enforcement standards, including the doubling of closure orders to 12 months, are vital for this work.

When tackling serious organised crime, the National Crime Agency employs the 4P approach: pursue, prevent, prepare and protect. The Government have taken positive steps to enable the authorities to pursue offenders, with more co ordination, resources and tougher enforcement. There is scope to do more to prevent the opportunities for these dodgy businesses to open in the first place. There is a good example in the Netherlands, where the Bibob Act allows public authorities to conduct integrity checks on individuals and businesses before granting licences and permits.

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech on an important issue. As he will know, the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 recently came on to the statute book, which I hugely support as a member of the all party parliamentary group on smoking and health. There is a licensing scheme under that Act, enabling local authorities to have more control over shops that sell products such as tobacco and vapes. There will be a clear method to facilitate the reduction of those shops on our high streets. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important for the Department of Health and Social Care to get on with the consultation on that licensing scheme as soon as possible?

I agree that it sounds like a very helpful proposal. On the subject of permits and businesses, there is much more the Government can do to restrict the permitting of high street bookmakers, which many Members have spoken about.

In the Netherlands, public authorities are allowed to conduct integrity checks on individuals and businesses before granting licences and permits, and local authorities have the power to refuse applications if they think there is a serious risk that a permit could be used for criminal activities. I can see the benefit of that, as the police or other intelligence agencies could advise whether individuals are linked to organised crime, or whether it is reasonable to assume that 12 mini markets and vape shops in one small town centre are operating legitimately.

My hon. Friend mentioned mini marts. We had none in Carlisle 12 months ago, and now we have at least 12 or 15. They are all distinguished by having wrappered windows that cannot be seen through. There is a presumption in planning guidance that windows should be active, whereas these are obviously inactive. Does my hon. Friend think that more needs to be done to enforce existing planning laws to ensure that these shops do not open or, if they do, that they are closed down for contravening planning guidelines?

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Why are they wrapping the windows? The first question must be: what are they trying to hide? We want our town centres to be welcoming, warm and open. That practice is completely against that type of approach.

Could the Minister tell me whether the Government are considering similar measures to the Dutch Bibob Act? There are also far too many loopholes in Companies House, which BBC research reveals is wide open to abuse. Our dodgy shops group is proposing that greater powers be given to Companies House to identify and clamp down on fake company directors, with escalating fines or a “three strikes and you’re out” system.

In my patch in Thurrock, we unsurprisingly do not have a lot of London tourist tat shops, which are synonymous with dodgy directors changing hands every few weeks. We do, however, have a number of really suspect home goods shops, which sell goods that are often faulty. People have no recourse to a refund if the products go wrong, because the shops change hands every three to six months. Does my hon. Friend agree that we must do more to crack down on such evasion of responsibility by businesses changing hands through Companies House?

I agree, and I hope the Government are looking to close some of the loopholes at Companies House and strengthen oversight of fake directors who are abusing the system.

Finally, I am concerned about whether landlords can be complicit in the organised crime that we see. We propose increasing the transparency and accountability of landlords to deter complicity, but also more support for law abiding landlords to take action against tenants suspected of breaking the law. Will the Minister say more about whether the Government are considering increasing that accountability and the power of landlords to help to deal with illegality on our high streets?

Cradley Heath High Street used to be the thriving heart of our community. I was appalled but not surprised to see drug dealing in the open in one of the shops in our town. Through under resourcing and inattention, we have allowed the problem of dodgy shops to become a visible stain on our communities, so I welcome the Government’s really positive steps on that so far. The new taskforce, tougher powers and more resources will make a significant difference, but I call for those resources to be focused on the Black Country, which is becoming more of a hotspot, as people have heard in my speech today. I would like the Government to consider doing even more and at whether we could look abroad for lessons on further tools to use to prevent more dodgy shops from opening. I am referring to licensing, registration and requirements for landlords who knowingly or unknowingly facilitate organised crime. We need to get our high streets back to being the law abiding, beating heart of our towns that we all want to see.

Order. Everyone who wishes to speak is bobbing. Because of the number of hon. Members who have indicated that they wish to speak in the debate, and with the authority of the Chairman of Ways and Means, I am imposing a time limit on Back Bench speeches of four minutes.

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I say a big thank you to the hon. Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) for bringing this important issue to the Floor of the House and for all of us who are here being able to speak on it as a result.

I rise to highlight a pressing crisis directly impacting local businesses and community safety across my Strangford constituency. At the epicentre of the constituency sits Newtownards, where we have Conway Square, a booming hub of local commerce. Yet Newtownards, my biggest town, currently faces the difficulty faced throughout this United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: illicit activity impacting the fabric of the retail sector. Our high streets are the economic and social lifeblood of these distinct communities. Whether we are talking about the local traders in Newtownards, the independent businesses in Comber or the traditional shopkeepers at the Thursday market in Ballynahinch, they are forced to act as an unassisted frontline defence against an escalating wave of retail theft, criminal damage and antisocial behaviour.

Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to see a clampdown? We welcome the Government moving on this issue, but if there is a systematic clampdown, we have to try to ensure that the Government also recognise that we must not have even more derelict, empty properties on the high street. We need a combination of a crackdown on illegal shops, but also efforts to redevelop the high street for legal shops so that shoppers can enjoy them.

My hon. Friend always brings wise words and wisdom to the debate.

We frequently hear the narrative that Northern Ireland maintains historic lows in overall crime, but sweeping generalities do not always give the true picture. I know that the Police Service of Northern Ireland is not the Minister’s responsibility, but to give a perspective from Northern Ireland, which I always do in these debates—it is really important that we put it on the record—the PSNI has said that the overall crime statistics are down by some 2.3%, but in relation to my constituency of Strangford and to Newtownards in particular, Ards and North Down has bucked the positive trend. It stands out as one of the few policing districts to experience an increase in recorded crime. Unfortunately that is happening, and I am here to reflect that in this debate.

Long term trend data reveals that, across the region, theft offences have risen substantially, driven heavily by a massive surge in shoplifting. It has reached the point at which shoplifting has hit some of the highest levels ever recorded in Northern Ireland’s recent history. In town centres such as Newtownards, the commercial crime wave is felt acutely. CrimeRate shows that the overall crime rate in Newtownards sits at 44 crimes per 1,000 people, which is 24% higher than the Northern Ireland average. That, again, gives an indication of the issues.

Crucially for our high streets, theft and shoplifting make up more than 20% of all recorded crime in Newtownards. That goes along with high density antisocial behaviour and criminal damage, which intimidate shoppers and drive down footfall. As National Trading Standards warns, organised crime groups are actively infiltrating high street retail spaces. On our own doorsteps, shopkeepers face organised, brazen shoplifting rings that steal to order, often funding low level drug networks or residual paramilitary elements that still attempt to exert control over our towns. I have been in touch with PSNI Superintendent Johnston McDowell to ensure that the police have a proactive partnership with the shopkeepers, the chamber of trade and individuals to reduce that. To expect a small business owner already battling inflation and footfall migration to absorb the financial losses of relentless retail theft is completely unsustainable.

The Minister is always responsive, and I know that she travels to Northern Ireland regularly. I also know that she likes going there—I am very biased, but doesn’t everybody? I believe we must work with the Northern Ireland Executive to allocate dedicated and visible town centre foot patrols that cover the full span of the constituency with a heavy permanent presence in Newtownards and stretching down as far as Ballynahinch so as to deter organised theft rings.

It is a pleasure to intervene on the hon. Gentleman for a change. I have been raising similar issues with Middlesbrough council about Middlesbrough town centre. I am assured that the council is bringing forward a plan soon. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that there needs to be closer collaboration between local government and central Government to address these issues?

The hon. Gentleman is right to add that issue to the debate. I know that when the Minister responds he will encourage us all in that regard.

I am not going to take all the time that has been awarded to me in this debate, but I will say that we must be more aggressive with the legal outcomes for repeat offenders. Shoplifting cannot be dismissed as a victimless, low level offence; it is not that for those who are trying to make their living.

What discussions has the Minister had with the Justice Minister back home to ensure that we can do better? We need cross district town centre shared networks with enhanced capital funding to expand localised business crime partnerships—that is the police, chamber of trade and local shopkeepers. We also need to share live digital intelligence and instantly flag active shoplifting groups. After Newtownards earlier this week, will those groups be in Bangor, Comber, Ballynahinch or Saintfield the following week? Our constituents and retailers across Strangford and this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland deserve town centres that feel welcoming, prosperous and secure. Let us deliver the legislative teeth that we need to ensure our shopkeepers and businesses are able to trade.

It is a pleasure to speak under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) for securing this important debate.

This is an issue that communities such as Leigh and Atherton face every single day. Quite frankly, my constituents have had enough. Illegal and exploitative businesses are undermining public safety, damaging our high streets and eroding community pride. Whether it is vape shops, barber shops or mini marts, people are fed up with outlets appearing overnight, often acting as fronts for organised crime, and residents having no say. Meanwhile, as we have heard, legitimate businesses that follow the rules and contribute to the local economy are struggling to survive.

I have been working alongside my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) on a campaign to shut these dodgy shops down. That campaign now has support from over 50 Members—many of them are here today—and that shows just how widespread and serious the issue has become. Enforcement action such as Operation Machinize, which took place in Leigh and Atherton back in 2024 and led to numerous arrests, and the recent raids by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in London show what can be achieved. They also highlight a fundamental problem: the system does not stop these businesses opening in the first place, nor does it give the authorities the tools to keep them closed.

I thank the Government because they have taken welcome steps and are listening. Those steps include new funding, a dedicated organised crime unit and stronger closure powers. I particularly welcome the extension of closure orders to up to 12 months, and I thank the Minister for working alongside us on that. However, we must be honest: this will not be enough on its own. Too often when one shop is shut, the same individuals reopen nearby within weeks. Residents see it and I see it. At the same time, the spread of these outlets continues, particularly in more deprived communities. Leigh and Atherton does not need any more of them.

We need to go further. We need stronger enforcement powers and proper resourcing for trading standards and local authorities. Trading standards needs more teeth.

My hon. Friend is a passionate advocate for tackling this issue. I echo the remarks from her and my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) about the need to learn the lessons from our colleagues in Holland. We have all talked about the perverse issue of frankly playing whack a-mole, whereby shops pop up and bad faith actors hide behind a smokescreen, whether from trading standards, HMRC, the National Crime Agency or local police forces that are responsible for addressing enforcement. Will she echo my calls for the Home Office to work closely with colleagues in HMRC, the Treasury and the Department for Business and Trade to make sure that we are addressing the cumulative impact of the harm caused to local areas?

I thank my hon. Friend, who is a huge champion of that cause and who did so much work on it before entering this House, and I echo his comments.

We need joined up action across Government and a commitment to maybe extend the funding beyond the initial three year period. It cannot be a short term fix. We need a court system that can deliver swift justice and we need tougher consequences, whether through escalating fines or a clear “three strikes and you’re out” approach so that repeat offenders cannot simply carry on.

Finally, as was mentioned earlier, it is really important that landlords and managing agents are held to account. Greater due diligence is needed so that properties are not repeatedly let to those engaged in illicit activity. If we are serious about restoring trust in our high streets and in politics, we must deliver real change. That means backing legitimate businesses but also taking decisive action against those who are undermining our communities. If we want our high streets to thrive, they must be safe, lawful and fair. The Government have made a start, but we must go further and faster.

I want to end by thanking the Government for the work they have done so far on the issue. They have truly listened to our communities’ concerns, and I look forward to working alongside them to continue to tackle this problem on our streets.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) on securing this important debate.

As other Members have noted, town centres are incredibly important to residents, and Huddersfield is no different. The town centre is a part of our identity; it is a reminder of our childhoods, and, for many, it represents whether a place is doing well and whether agencies, councils and Governments care about them. In too many places in the north and the midlands, people have seen the slow decline of their town centre—the place they call home. That has led to resentment and a lack of trust in politicians and agencies to get the basics right.

On top of that, the number of vape shops in England has grown by nearly 1,200% in little over a decade. While cash intensive businesses are not new, for too many residents the rate at which they are rising is alarming. The National Crime Agency estimates that at least £1 billion of criminal cash is laundered through UK high street stores each year. Not only do those stores often provide hotspots for illicit activity, they also destroy the character that makes towns so special. From my conversations with constituents at coffee mornings, at business round tables and on doorsteps, I have heard loud and clear that closing those stores is vital to injecting the life back into our town centre.

I welcome the creation of the Government’s high street organised crime unit, particularly its focus on strengthening partnership working and the intensified enforcement action on businesses that are committing these offences, which includes additional raids, closure orders and cash seizures. In November 2025, the West Yorkshire trading standards team conducted undercover raids to crack down on high street businesses suspected of laundering criminal cash. The operation seized £2.7 million of criminal assets. The feedback from those operations has been positive and they will be continuing. Will the Minister set out when further enforcement activities like those will be increased in local areas? In addition, what further steps are being taken to connect information across agencies and to flag suspicious entities so that such operations can be closed down quickly and, as other Members have said, stopped from popping up again?

A recent report by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, titled “Hidden in Plain Sight”, highlighted a corridor of crime across the north of England, from Liverpool to Hull and Grimsby. Unfortunately, Huddersfield has been ranked in the top 10 UK towns and cities with the most dodgy shops on the high street. The report calls on the Government to urgently invest in enforcement capabilities and particularly mentions trading standards.

Over the past decade, trading standards has seen its resources cut by up to 50%. In 2002, more than 4,000 staff were employed by trading standards, but in 2025, there are now 2,300. Since then, crime has become more visible, so will the Minister confirm the steps being taken to support trading standards on the ground? We must ensure that our town centres can once again become vibrant spaces worth fighting for.

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) on introducing the debate. There are a lot of ideas and much intent to tackle this problem, because high streets are so evocative. They are a visual symbol of economic challenges and act as an ever present reminder of what has been lost. That is one reason why people feel so strongly about the brazen illegality we see on high streets the length and breadth of the country. It is no longer a question of isolated bad actors but of a regulatory system that has been repeatedly outpaced by evolving criminal business models.

My constituents are angry that where once there was an active high street with household names, there now stand illegal vape shops, mini marts and a suspicious number of barbers. They know that something is not right, particularly when legitimate businesses have already vacated the area due to reduced footfall. But the law is fighting back. I have joined local enforcement activity in Ellesmere Port, where all the agencies came together and carried out co ordinated raids, resulting in the seizure of illicit tobacco and vape products, with shops shut down under court orders. That was most welcome, but what was seized was sadly just the tip of the iceberg, and we see a repeated cycle of enforcement and re emergence with connected parties.

It is the recurring nature of these rackets that shakes people’s confidence in the system, especially when they are so brazen, so I absolutely welcome the Government’s intent to tackle the problem. There is much to commend in the blitz on dodgy shops programme, which contains measures that finally go beyond rhetoric. The creation of the high street organised crime unit has long been called for, and the commitment to double the time for which a shop can be closed after breaching the law will also help, but as a number of people have said, we can go further.

A Business and Trade Committee inquiry found that “enforcement agencies do not have the necessary powers to permanently close”

rogue businesses. The director of National Trading Standards said, “you seize, go back, seize and go back”.

It is clear that the tools we have are not fit for purpose. Councils should have the power to close premises permanently without having to go to court, and landlords should not get off the hook if their property is used for illegal purposes. Landlords need help to make wise choices, and they could be encouraged to flag any suspicious or illegal behaviour. Those landlords who are indifferent about who is renting their property should have nowhere to hide if illegal activity is happening on their premises. If landlords are indifferent, they should face criminal sanctions, too.

We also need a tougher approach on the collection of fines. Too often, they go uncollected. According to the Home Office, £18 million of fines were issued against illegal car washes in 2025, but the Department could not say how many had actually been paid. After a freedom of information request, we know that the figure is around 5%. We need a proper deterrent; these fines must mean something, and there should be tough enforcement action against individuals.

I know that a number of Members wish to speak, so I will end my remarks, but I want finally to say that I welcome the action taken so far. There is no shortage of ideas about how we can go further. It is good to see that the problem is finally receiving the attention it deserves. Regenerating our high streets is critical to national renewal, but to regenerate them, we first of all have to reclaim them. Illicit activity on our high streets is an evocative issue that frustrates law abiding people and erodes confidence in the state’s ability to tackle crime, so I absolutely welcome the blitz on dodgy shops and the action to back up the rhetoric, but we need to go further by addressing the problems at source, to prevent illegal shops from opening in the first place and then leaving no hiding place for those who are found to have broken the law.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. In March, the excellent work of Dudley trading standards officers was highlighted in a Channel 4 documentary in which officers uncovered links to organised crime and signs of child exploitation, including the illegal sale of vapes to children as young as 11. The trading standards team has been carrying out extensive enforcement activity against illegal shop operations, particularly those involved in illicit vaping sales. That work ultimately led to the closure of 31 illegal shops, including in Stourbridge, Brierley Hill and Netherton. Dudley council has since launched an internal audit, and it is reviewing evidence shared with child protection teams and examining whistleblowing reports from the last 10 years to ensure that nothing has been missed. It is vital that those responsible are held to account and, above all, make certain that strong safeguards are put in place to protect vulnerable children in future.

I was a local councillor before becoming an MP and was always impressed by the proactive work of our trading standards and the local police. I have worked with them to secure closures of several local shops over the years and have even given evidence to strengthen cases. Despite those tireless efforts, they are working with one arm tied behind their backs. Closure orders only last for three to six months and then shops reopen with a different owner. Some shops have more than one location and transfer illicit stock across local authority boundaries to evade enforcement, which I have seen happen between my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger). All the while, trust and hope in our communities is eroded.

I am really pleased that this Labour Government are taking action to support the work of local teams and restore pride in our towns and high streets. Recent national enforcement by HMRC strengthens cases against shop owners and adds to the arsenal for tackling this issue. Illegal activity has no place whatsoever on our high streets. It creates an uneven playing field for shops and services that follow the rules. We need to extend closure order periods, tackle phoenixing and hold landlords to account for who they let their units to.

It also needs to be really easy for the public to report their concerns. We all hear from constituents who have suspicions about illegal shops in our towns and high streets, and we know that first hand reporting always carries the most weight. In the past, concerns could be reported directly to our councils through their websites, but in some cases it has now been directed centrally through Citizens Advice.

There are also situations where people try to report but are too scared or worried, so there needs to be some sort of process so that people can report without fear of retribution.

My hon. Friend is right. I hear a lot from local shopkeepers that they are afraid to raise their concerns with the police for fear of being attacked. It is absolutely right to make it as easy as possible for the public, who are as frustrated as we are, to support this work. We are now seeing reports directed centrally through Citizens Advice, where there is no specific reporting mechanism for trading standards itself, which leaves people uncertain about where to direct their reports.

I am hopeful that we will see an improvement in how we tackle illegal activity on our high streets and make our communities vibrant and welcoming once more.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) for securing this vital debate. When I speak in this House about illicit activity in high street shops, I do so on behalf of the people of Birmingham Erdington, including those in Kingstanding, Castle Vale and south Oscott. These residents take great pride in their community and deserve to feel safe on their local high street.

Areas such as Erdington High Street and Slade Road are not simply a row of shops but the centre of community life. They are where people go to work, shop, meet neighbours and access essential services. However, for too long, organised criminal activity has been allowed to take hold in my community, undermining legitimate businesses and damaging public confidence. We are not talking about isolated incidents or minor trading offences; we are talking about organised criminal networks using retail premises as fronts for wider illicit activity—selling illegal tobacco, counterfeit goods, untaxed alcohol and unregulated vapes, which normally end up in the hands of young people.

In my constituency, Operation Fearless and Operation Skybridge have resulted in one of the largest seizures of illicit goods in Birmingham’s history. I pay tribute to the work of our local police officers, trading standards teams and everyone involved in Operation Fearless and Operation Skybridge. Residents have seen the difference that visible enforcement activity can make.

Since the launch of Operation Fearless, there has been a concerted effort to tackle antisocial behaviour, antisocial crime, shoplifting and wider criminality that has affected confidence in the town centre for many years. Despite those efforts, enforcement agencies are often placed in an impossible position: shops are closed down, only for the same operators to open under a different name days or weeks later. There is also growing local concern about the wider criminal exploitation linked to some of these premises.

My hon. Friend is speaking passionately about enforcement in Birmingham Erdington. Does she agree that key organisations in the private sector have a lot of information? All these shops are banked by someone. The Government can drive down the barriers to information sharing between the private and public sectors to identify suspicious activity so that enforcement agencies—be they the police, trading standards or the National Crime Agency—can have the greatest possible impact when they conduct these sorts of raids.

My hon. Friend makes a vital point. It needs to be joined up. The one thing I have learned from being an MP and seeing things work in my area is that when we work together, we get things done.

Organised criminal networks are operating across multiple organisations and exploiting vulnerable individuals. That is why we need stronger and faster closure powers, better support for trading standards teams and greater accountability for landlords who repeatedly rent properties to those engaged in illicit activity. I welcome the Government’s work to date, but I ask the Minister what further support the Government will provide to build on the success of operations such as Fearless and Skybridge at a hyper local level. What steps will be taken to ensure that local authorities and police forces have the long term powers and resources they need to tackle organised criminal activity on our high streets once and for all?

Finally, how will the Minister work with local authorities and other agencies to tighten our planning and licensing rules, to stop unscrupulous landlords doing what they have been doing and getting away with for so many years? Residents tell MPs that it is lawless up there, because there is nothing they can do.

I remind hon. Members to be as brief as possible with their interventions. We should just get everyone in with the four minute time limit.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) for securing this very important debate. This weekend, Nuneaton celebrated the 800th anniversary of its royal market charter, first awarded by King Henry III. It was an absolutely fantastic day, with live local music and our teenage, independent and normal Saturday markets all coming together to celebrate our rich history and culture and the talent of my town.

I was immensely proud to be part of that, and I was delighted to see such an increase in footfall for our traders. But my town, like so many others, has been battered by years of austerity and under investment. Transformation plans were delayed again and again, while £1.25 million was cut from our trading standards between 2011 and 2015, creating a culture of looking the other way while dodgy shop after dodgy shop moved in. In the past two years, our Labour council has begun to turn things around. Our long promised transformation plans are finally coming to fruition with the opening of Saints, the demolition approvals for and landscaping of long empty sites, and now new investment in Grayson Place, welcoming the UK’s first championship padel courts and the brilliant North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire college to our town.

Our council and its officers have worked tirelessly to diversify our town, bringing in homes, services, hospitality and leisure. An empty Debenhams has become luxury apartments, and an old nightclub has become Saints—thriving community assets. Footfall is rising again, up more than 24,000 in the final quarter, with 2 million visits to my town centre this year. Businesses are returning and confidence is growing. We are on track to restore our once vibrant town centre.

However, that progress is at risk if we cannot turn the tide on crime and dodgy shops, which threaten the very survival of historical towns such as mine. Dodgy shops undercut honest tax paying traders by selling counterfeit and illegal goods. Worse still, they undermine public confidence in our country’s ability to enforce the law. People see illegal vape shops, drugs and counterfeit products being openly sold, and suspected money laundering and organised crime, and ask how that is allowed to happen. For far too long, that question has gone unanswered.

I welcome the Government’s new funding for trading standards, and the National Crime Agency’s new powers to strengthen enforcement between the Home Office, HMRC, trading standards and the police, but that funding and those powers must reach into towns such as mine. We cannot simply force problems out of larger cities and into smaller towns without providing the resources to tackle them. We need to prevent them from arising in the first place.

While out door knocking recently, I was told by residents about cars driving at all hours of the day, including 4 am visits, with whole streets being disturbed. I raised that with our local teams, and raids took place this week. Illegal goods were seized, and we now await closure orders. However, that is all too often not the outcome. As we have heard, the endless whack a-mole situation prevents people from closing such places down permanently. If our towns are to make progress and we are to protect what we have, we must be able to close them down permanently and never allow them to open again.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) on securing this important debate and on his excellent speech.

Our high streets are more than just places to shop. They are at the heart of our communities; they are places where people meet, local businesses grow and neighbourhoods come to life. That is why illicit activity on our high streets not only undermines the honest businesses that work hard to serve the community but makes people feel unsafe in their communities. They see illicit activity go unchecked and feel powerless.

Crowds and antisocial behaviour outside shops are often a red flag for the activity inside them. That is an issue not just for the Home Office and HMRC, but for the police. To make our towns safe, the individuals engaging in that type of activity outside shops also need to be dealt with. Does the hon. Member agree?

The hon. Member makes an excellent point. People sometimes feel intimidated by those who congregate around shops, and that makes them feel unsafe.

Southgate and Wood Green constituents have told me that, aside from the sale of counterfeit vapes and tobacco, they have witnessed drug dealing openly taking place outside cafés and other premises. They have witnessed phoenix shops—which open for a few weeks, close and then reopen under a different name—dodging tax and business rates and contributing nothing to the local area. It is clear that organised crime is behind that, as many hon. Members have said.

Serious and organised crime is estimated to cost the UK Government at least £47 billion annually. Investing in the protection of our high streets should be at the top of our priorities. The recent Home Office and Treasury announcements are a good start, but we need a co ordinated approach, with one Department taking the lead in solving this problem, which cuts across Departments. If we are to crack the problem, co ordination and information sharing at local government and national Government levels will be key.

That is why I welcome the Government’s new national high street organised crime unit, which has been established to co ordinate across Government, policing and enforcement agencies. That is, alongside the £30 million for combating high street criminality, a welcome step forward. However, to act as fast as possible, we must also give authorities more power to tackle crime head on.

As is the case in my constituency, trading standards teams are already stretched. We desperately need more investment in trading standards, including more trading standards officers. Specialist financial investigators are also urgently needed to address money laundering, and I am pleased that the Treasury has promised to invest in them. We must do more at the pace that this challenge demands.

However, although the Government’s efforts to tackle illicit activity are welcome, enforcement alone cannot close an already widening gap. Criminal networks are often hidden behind front operators with no obvious criminal record, making it difficult for local authorities to identify risks before damage is done. Colleagues have already referred to the Bibob Act in the Netherlands, which focuses on prevention and tackling the issue before it can come to life on high streets. I would very much welcome powers like those in that Act.

As we work to tackle the criminality on some of our high streets, we must ask how we can prevent it from taking root in the first place. Can the Minister tell me whether the Government are considering giving greater powers to local authorities and trading standards officers to tackle illicit activity on our streets? What steps she is taking to ensure that there is greater co ordination in Government and at local level?

I welcome all the changes that the Government are making to protect our high streets from illicit activity, including the extension of closure order powers. However, more needs to be done to tackle this challenging issue. We must restore public confidence and more vibrant and thriving high streets. To do so, we need to use all the weapons at our disposal to cut out once and for all the cancer of illicit and criminal activity.

I welcome your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) for securing the debate. The Home Affairs Committee, of which I am a member, is currently investigating organised crime on our high streets—that is welcome.

Across Worksop, Retford and Harworth, there has been a surge in vape shops, barber shops and mini marts. They are clustered close together and often have barely any customers. Local people are asking a very simple question: how do such businesses survive?

I certainly hear the same thing in Mansfield. Residents raise concerns with me when they see businesses that seem to operate without customers but somehow remain open and trade. Does my hon. Friend agree that, where there is evidence of that type of activity, the public are right to expect rapid enforcement of the law?

I totally agree with my hon. Friend. I strongly believe that such businesses are money laundering fronts. There needs to be close police scrutiny of them, and greater partnership with other authorities to monitor those shops and shut them down as quickly as possible.

Local traders and residents are rightly concerned. Earlier this year, I decided to take a closer look. I held a local inquiry, alongside Julie Leigh, the leader of Bassetlaw district council; Sally Gillborn, the chief executive of our business improvement district; and Michael Bullen, a local businessman. They deal with this issue day in, day out. The message that we received was clear: the system is not working. Planning rules are too weak, licensing is underpowered and enforcement is stretched.

We set out some practical recommendations. First, the Government must give councils real control over their high streets. At the moment, the clustering of such shops just happens and local communities are left to deal with the consequences. Secondly, we need proper regulation of vape and tobacco retailers—a licensing scheme is long overdue. Thirdly, we cannot ignore the harder question. Where we see cash heavy businesses with little visible trade, it is right to ask whether they have links to wider criminal activity. Such links must be properly investigated, and enforcement needs backing. Licensing fees have not kept pace with other developments, trading standards officers are under pressure and the relevant data is not being used as it should be.

This is not just about Whitehall; it is also about what happens locally. We need visible neighbourhood policing back in our town centres, with named officers, a consistent presence and real relationships with businesses. The Nottinghamshire police and crime commissioner listened to my call for a police station in Worksop, and I welcome the announcement that it will be opening shortly, but we need simple ways to report concerns, and confidence that those concerns will be acted on. We need co ordination; at the moment, too much intelligence is siloed. At its heart, this is about fairness—fairness for the businesses doing the right thing—and confidence for the public that their high street is safe and properly regulated. What we are seeing is not tolerated or isolated; it is serious, and we need action right now.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) on securing this important debate. I also congratulate my hon. Friends the Members for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt) and for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) on their work to combat dodgy shops.

As is evident from the number of Members here—particularly Labour Members—this issue concerns many of our constituencies. Sadly, my Thurrock constituency is not immune to dodgy shops and illegality and criminality on the high street. Like others, we have seen a massive proliferation of vape shops and barber shops, as well as—if not mini marts—very odd home goods shops springing up out of nowhere, with two or three competitors directly opposite, and selling goods that probably explode the minute they are turned on and are no good for anyone. Those phoenix shops close down or change hands after five to six months, evading tax, evading business rates and providing no good and no use to the town at all.

Indeed, one such shop, on Grays High Street in my local town, now does not even bother to remove the merchandise or move it around; it just sticks a Sharpie written sign up on the door every six months saying that it is under new management, which is absolutely appalling. We know where the issues lie: spending on trading standards has been reduced by around 50% over the last decade.

Considering the strength of feeling and the level of criminality that we have heard about, does my hon. Friend not find it shocking that, on top of long term cuts of £100,000 in its medium term forecasts, Warwickshire county council has just frozen £55,000 that was allocated to tackling rogue traders?

That is indeed shocking and very short sighted.

The real issue in my area is that our council is under intervention, so its ability to plan and take enforcement action, and to put planning conditions on town centres to better reflect what people are after—rather than the best way for businesses to turn a profit—is somewhat hampered.

My hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling) got there first in mentioning the disgraceful cuts by Reform led Warwickshire county council. Does my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) agree that it is also rather disgraceful that no Reform UK Members of Parliament are here for this debate? They often talk about the importance of our high streets, so where are they?

I agree with my hon. Friend. The lack not only of Reform UK Members but—other than the shadow Minister—of Conservative Members is disgraceful and a real shame. Labour Members are trying to make positive change to bring communities together and tackle this issue, which, as we hear time and again, is a root cause of people’s disaffection and disillusionment with the state of their town centres and, indeed, of our country.

When I walk down Grays High Street, Derwent Parade or Civic Square in Tilbury, I find it an incredibly depressing experience—I know that Members will be familiar with that. There are big gaps where shops used to be. Those shops were the pride—the crown jewels—of the town, and they are being replaced with shops that bring no real benefit, including dodgy vape shops and other phoenix shops that change hands every few months. It leads to a sense that high streets are not for decent people or for the community; they are for those who seek to turn a quick buck, who do not play fair or by the rules, and who are often the very sharp end of a criminal network that makes hundreds of millions of pounds and exploits vulnerable people. We all know this.

I am delighted that the Government have announced the high street organised crime unit and that Thurrock will be one of the areas targeted for attention. Bringing together a co ordinated response using the National Crime Agency, trading standards and the local police force will start to turn the tide on some of the illegal and illicit activity that we are seeing on our high street.

But I would like to pose a question about what comes next. If dodgy shops are closed down and closure periods are extended, we can manage to stamp them out for good, but we need to think about what they will be replaced with; an empty, dead high street is no good for anyone. I have been trying to encourage my local council to use some Pride in Place impact funding, particularly around Grays High Street, to open up shops closed down for illicit activity to the community as welcoming spaces. We could do something that the community can be proud of and create a place where people might actually want to go and spend time in.

We must have a co ordinated effort across Government and at the local level about what to do. If we end criminality and illegality, what do we want our high streets to look like? They cannot go back to being the high streets of the 1950s—we are not going back there—but what does the high street of the future look like? What is a space that we can all be proud of, that is welcoming and encouraging for our communities and that is not under the purview of criminality? Let us reclaim our high streets and regenerate them once and for all.

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Dowd. I congratulate the hon. Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) on securing this important debate and the constructive manner in which he introduced the subject, which is important for many Members across the House.

I thank many hon. Members for their contributions to the debate. My hon. Friend the Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord) highlighted the securing of action against illegal trading in Honiton High Street. I took note of the comments made by the hon. Members for Thurrock (Jen Craft) and for Carlisle (Ms Minns) about planning controls, screening windows and changes of use in planning conditions; I am supportive of those approaches. The hon. Members for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt) and for Halesowen also pointed out that landlords need to be tackled; I will return to that later, as I will to the point made by the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders) about the burdensome need to go to court to follow through with these orders.

High streets are the heart of our communities, and we cannot allow them to become sites of decline. Both Taunton and Wellington have a fabulous range of independent traders, shopkeepers and publicans, who are making ends meet in a financial climate made much harder by recent tax increases. Footfall in Taunton, however, is up by 4.6% in large part due to their efforts. The Government must be on their side, and we must be clear that criminality on our high streets will not be tolerated. The hollowing out of our police force by the previous Government has allowed organised crime gangs to gain far too much of a foothold in our communities, with local communities paying the price.

Let us make no mistake: organised crime sits behind and at the top of all this, either employing or—quite often—exploiting migrants as suits their purposes and to do their dirty work. A recent BBC investigation found someone trying to sell a shop to its undercover reporter for £18,000; a Facebook group listing dozens of mini marts, barbers, car washes and takeaways for sale; ghost directors charging illegal workers up to £300 a month to register mini marts in their names; and people working 14-hour shifts in mini marts for only £4 an hour.

Thanks to a local publican in my constituency, who came forward with vital information back in 2024, I raised illegal trading in Taunton and Wellington with Somerset trading standards and local police. I pay tribute to police officers such as Andy, the trading standards officers and my Lib Dem Somerset councillor colleagues, who oversaw the work that led to a number of high profile closures in Taunton. Taunton Market, Mr Taunton and Top Market have rightly been closed down, as has the Danya Store in Wellington only last week, following just the kind of crackdown that was needed and that I have supported.

It cannot be said too often to anyone flouting these laws in Taunton and Wellington or anywhere across the country: illegal trading is not welcome—you will be closed down and you will be prosecuted. But we need to go further. Polling commissioned by the Liberal Democrats found that three in five Brits want to see more power to control the number of vape shops on their high streets. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute has pointed out that we need properly resourced trading standards services, which means tackling the local government funding crisis—particularly the social care funding crisis, which is a burden under which councils such as Somerset are struggling.

Through the Crime and Policing Act 2026, the Government increased the duration of temporary closure notices from 48 hours to 72 hours by amending the Anti social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, and they have recently said that they will extend closure orders from six months to 12 months to give investigators more time to pursue prosecutions. The Liberal Democrats welcome those changes, but we want the Government to go further. Under Liberal Democrat plans, councils would be given the power to issue closure orders to more swiftly shut down any shops engaging in criminality. Those powers would be expanded to ensure that repeat offenders’ premises are closed down permanently, and those whose ownership is under question would remain shut until the owner comes forward and faces up to the law.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a return to proper community policing, which must mean giving the bobby on the ground more powers to deal with this menace more easily and, crucially, with less paperwork. Officers currently spend almost half their shift on paperwork, but we all want them out and about in our communities. The Liberal Democrats propose giving officers the power to close down premises using closure notices for seven days, not just 72 hours. More importantly, they would not have to apply to the courts for an order, as is currently required under section 80 of the 2014 Act, safeguarded by the requirement that the superintendent must have evidence of more than one instance of illegal activity and by right of appeal to the courts. Police officers would then not have the onerous task of preparing an application to the court every time they encounter illegal trading and want to halt it, as they are currently required to do under section 80.

Our changes would mean that officers are able to close premises quickly and easily, reducing the criminal scope for phoenixing—setting up premises quickly under a different company—and constraining the ability to set up nearby alternative premises. The current law allowing closure notices—section 76 of the 2014 Act—restricts the grounds to nuisance and disorder. Criminal activity is not mentioned, so a new law would correct that omission.

Measures need to be taken against landlords who repeatedly rent their units to dodgy companies carrying out illegal activity. My Somerset councillor colleagues, supported by trading standards, have called for civil penalties against landlords who knowingly let their premises be used for illegal trading. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute has also made that point. Landlords who repeatedly offend should lose their premises for at least two years; the premises should be handed over to the local council to be let out at reduced rents to genuine local businesses that play by the rules.

The changes that the Home Secretary recently announced cannot come soon enough, but the Government should be much bolder. The Liberal Democrats want to see more police on our streets to restore proper community policing; swifter closure orders and notices, lasting up to seven days, with an end to the burden of paperwork that they currently generate, which slows our police officers down; and penalties for landlords who repeatedly turn a blind eye to whom they are renting their properties. These criminal gangs must be given no quarter in Taunton and Wellington or any other town centre in the country.

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Dowd. I congratulate the hon. Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) on securing this important debate.

For far too many people and in far too many places, the high street has become a visible sign of where the British state has lost control. People suspect that the cash only takeaways, barber’s shops and vape shops that they see springing up on their high streets are symptomatic of a deeper rot. As the hon. Gentleman and many others set out, in many cases they are right. All too often, such high street shops are linked to organised crime, including through the sale of illicit or counterfeit goods, money laundering, immigration crime and people smuggling.

Last month, the BBC uncovered that people smugglers are directing migrants to pay for illegal channel crossings using a network of high street businesses, including mobile phone shops. In 2024 alone, trading standards seized more than 1 million illegal vapes and 19 million illegal cigarettes. As the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Harpreet Uppal) mentioned, the National Crime Agency estimates that £1 billion of crime linked cash is laundered through high street businesses every year. It is clearly difficult to produce reliable estimates of things such as money laundering, so the real figure may be even higher. The money laundered by such businesses often fuels human trafficking or the drug trade.

The problem is only getting worse. According to one survey, 99% of trading standards professionals have seen an increase in the number of cash intensive businesses opening on their local high streets in recent years. Cash intensive businesses often provide the best fronts for money laundering and the trade in illicit and counterfeit goods.

While businesses that do the right thing are struggling with ever more regulation and ever higher taxes, businesses with links to organised crime are thriving. To combat the rise in illicit activity on our high streets, we must understand the criminal networks that sustain that activity and the link in many cases between those networks and immigration.

Let us imagine, for example, an organised crime gang involved in the drugs trade. When that gang sells drugs to people, payment will most often be made in cash, because cash is harder to trace. However, if that business wants to bring its cash into the normal financial system, it will need to launder the money so as not to provoke suspicion. If a person suddenly deposits tens of thousands of pounds with no clear income source, a bank will register that as suspicious, but not so if the money is deposited by a high street business.

The gang might therefore set up a high street shop—something cash intensive and with low overhead costs, such as a vape shop. The shop records its transactions but adds to those real purchases a series of phantom cash sales used to disguise the illicit cash raised by the sale of drugs. The deposit appears legitimate and can be backed up with paperwork. Once that cash is deposited, it can be paid out as profit to those involved in running the organisation, for example as a fake invoice to an overseas supplier that is paid out to a shell company registered abroad.

The criminal gangs involved in the drug trade operate across borders both financially and physically. They will have overseas suppliers who provide them with the drugs that they sell. These supply networks are often sustained by links between people of the same nationality, ethnicity or even extended family. Often, these drug gangs are also involved in other kinds of cross border smuggling—of counterfeit goods, illegal tobacco and, indeed, people.

I thank the hon. Lady for bringing this to the attention of the Chamber today. One of the issues, which I know the Minister is well across, is the cross border trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We are the only part of the United Kingdom that has a land border. A better working relationship with the Garda Síochána is critical. Can the Minister confirm that the Garda Síochána, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the police forces here on the mainland can work together to better defeat paramilitary and organised crime groups?

The hon. Member is right that the common travel area presents particular challenges. It is crucial to maintain the sorts of relationships he is talking about in a way that keeps the public safe in Northern Ireland and the whole country.

If high street shops are already laundering money on behalf of these gangs, they might also sell the things that the gang illegally imports. They might serve as points of contact for people who are looking to smuggle people into Britain illegally, as was highlighted by the BBC’s most recent investigation.

Those shops might also help criminal gangs to bring people into this country by sponsoring their visas. As my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston (Neil O’Brien) has previously highlighted, many cash intensive high street businesses sponsor an absurd number of visas. On paper, these people work for a legitimate high street business, but in practice many of them will be using that apparently legitimate employment as cover for their work as part of a criminal gang. Others may be working, or forced to work, for dramatically less than the minimum wage, which both exploits them and distorts the labour market. That happens everywhere in the country. In the stunning town of Tenterden in my constituency, Indian restaurant Badsha was recently found to have been employing illegal migrants for a fourth time, racking up £120,000 in fines and not paying a single penny.

I would appreciate it if the Minister set out how the Home Office thinks about and plans to tackle the links between illicit activity on the high street, organised crime, immigration and people smuggling, and how the Department’s plans for tackling illicit activity on the high street take account of those links. Does it keep a record of how many businesses raided under high street organised crime operations were also registered visa sponsors? Does it keep a record of the visa status and visa type of those employed by these businesses?

What proportion of high street businesses employing people illegally are repeat offenders like the one in my constituency? Will the Minister share what proportion of Operation Machinize targets in cases related to counterfeit goods, illegal tobacco or vapes, money laundering or the sale of drugs were also involved in illegal working, visa fraud or organised immigration crime and people smuggling?

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Mr Dowd.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) for securing this excellent debate. The message I take away from it is, “You’ve done some stuff that we think is good, but we need to do a lot more.” This issue is undoubtedly one that we will all be judged on when we next stand before the electorate.

As I have in Croydon, every Member in this place will have experience of a high street that they grew up going to that they know will never again be as they remember it. We also know that we need to tell a new story for our high streets. As shops have closed for all the reasons that Members have outlined, illicit activity has stepped in. It is important to start with the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft): we have not only to tackle the criminality, but to establish what we want to do with our town centres. As has been mentioned, there is some innovation across the country where town centres are growing, which is great.

The Government are very aware that we have to understand and appreciate the fact that the town centre of the future will be different, and we need to change laws and do what we can to encourage a new high street. A wider high street strategy is being pulled together at the moment; every Government Department that could possibly be relevant is coming together and asking, “What more can we do to ensure that our high streets can thrive for the businesses we want to see on them, rather than this illicit activity?”

The activity itself has been very well described, and my hon. Friends the Members for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt) and for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) showed leadership in painting us a very good picture of the problems we see nationally. We know there is this increase in shops—I see it on my high street, as everybody does—but people are not in them, so how are they making money? What is going on in that space?

As other Members will have done, I recently joined the raid of a shop in London, which was a big joint operation between trading standards, local authorities and the police, and some of the things I learned were very uncomfortable to hear. For example, an increasing number of builders are being employed by these shop owners to build hidden cupboards so that people can hide their illegal activities. Also, there were lots of cameras in the back of the shop, but they were not there to protect the shop itself; they were to keep an eye on the people working there—these are nasty criminal gangs that want to ensure that the people they employ are not stealing from them. The young lad who was in the shop when we did the raid had nothing to do with the ownership; apparently, the owner was away. As has been mentioned, understanding who owns some of these properties is a complicated and difficult challenge. I am very well aware of the problem that we are trying to fix.

I am very grateful to the many Members who pointed to the important work that the Government have introduced—I do not want to diminish it by saying that we of course need to go further. We have the new high street organised crime unit in the Home Office, as well as the £30 million that has been allocated, in part, to fund the National Crime Agency, and £6 million of which is going to trading standards. Many Members have talked about how the ability of trading standards to respond to today’s challenges has been completely wiped out, so that money will help them. Some £1.5 million has been allocated to immigration enforcement, just to add to all the other work that is happening in immigration—my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen asked about the connections, which of course exist; just today, there was an immigration raid in my constituency—and £1.5 million is going from that pot to HMRC so that it can do some work on this issue. Members talked about Companies House; there is more work to be done there, for sure.

The closure powers—the closure notice extension to 72 hours and, looking ahead, the longer, 12-month closure—are important, and I am glad that Members have welcomed them. I was very interested in what Members had to say about the Netherlands. As Policing Minister, I do not really get to go on trips, but maybe there should be a Netherlands trip with the campaign group to see what is being done there. In the absence of such a trip, I will certainly read more about how that regime is working. That is a really important point: we should look to other countries and understand what they are doing.

We are open to all of the many good suggestions that Members have made. There is a ministerial group chaired by the new Security Minister; she would have been here, but she could not be, as she is introducing legislation today. I am also on the committee, along with all the Departments that Members would expect to be there. There was a push for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to do work in this space; I know that it is looking at that, and I will certainly talk to it more about that. I will say that all the suggestions that have been made today were mentioned in that first ministerial meeting; we talked about all the same issues. I know we need to go further and faster and we need to push forward, but there was nothing surprising in the suggestions that hon. Members made; these are very sensible things that we are looking at and want to take forward.

There will be big national pushes under Operation Machinize. For obvious reasons, I cannot say when they will be, but Operation Machinize has worked effectively; when all the agencies work together, there is a much more effective outcome. All Members made useful suggestions: more support for trading standards; looking at licensing and more powers for local authorities; data sharing—that is an important suggestion, which I certainly agree with—a place for direct reporting into trading standards, which is an interesting one; and more powers to tackle landlords as well as the organised crime.

The Home Office’s policing reform programme will, I hope, help us tackle these kinds of issues much more effectively. Setting up a national police service could tackle this co ordinated, serious organised crime in a much better way. At the moment, every time there is a new issue, we have to set up a structure to tackle it at national level. The national police service will be there to do that. It will bring together the National Crime Agency, counter terrorism and all the other national organisations. We know that some of this money laundering is driving terrorism, for example, and at the moment two different bodies are tackling that. Bringing it all together and having co ordination at the centre will help.

At the bedrock of our policing policy, we have the commitment to 13,000 more neighbourhood officers on our streets. That will make a significant difference in how people feel about their high streets and in the criminal activity that we are able to tackle. When people mention, for example, kids hanging about outside the illegal shops and doing things that we think they should not be doing, the police will be there to tackle those problems.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen again for securing this debate, and I thank all Members—

Will the Minister give way?

Oh, yes—I forgot to talk about Northern Ireland.

I hope the Minister does not mind my asking, but would she take the time, as she often does on her visits to Northern Ireland, to engage with the Northern Ireland Justice Minister, Naomi Long? There are lots of things we can do better together, and we can share ideas, so will the Minister take that opportunity on one of her many visits to Northern Ireland?

Yes, of course. Forgive me; I should have responded to that earlier. The hon. Member also made the point about illicit trade across all our nations, and we need to work together to tackle that as well.

I will end just as I began, by saying that we will be judged on this when we next stand before—

Will the Minister accept another intervention?

I will take one more.

I am very grateful. I just want to clarify one point about planning controls. Key points were made about whether shops are actually shops if their windows are completely covered. If planning guidance was changed, that might open the way for enforcement under the existing system. Will the Minister get that message through to MHCLG?

Yes, of course. There are several areas for MHCLG to look at, and I know that it is already looking at what more powers we can have to close down the shops and stop them opening in the first place, as well as over the clustering of shops. We need to look at all those issues.

I thank everybody again. I very much get the message that we have started a good piece of work, but there is a lot more to do.

We can see the scale of the problem across the country from how many people have come to the debate today from different nations, cities, towns, seaside resorts and rural areas. It is great to see such interest. I am pleased about the steps the Government have taken so far. I thank the Minister in particular for taking away what the taskforce has been doing, which is really important work. We all know that a lot of this is down to cuts to trading standards and big cuts to police in the past, so the steps we are taking to resource those are welcome. I encourage the Minister to work with this group of MPs, as I am sure she will, as we go through changes and we can have some real results.

Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the matter of tackling illicit activity in high street shops.

Sitting suspended.