Government planning changes that will make it easier for bookies to move in will damage the growth of our high streets

The cat is out of the bag. In an exchange of correspondence (exposed by Labour’s Hilary Benn through an FoI request) between a senior director at Ladbrokes and planning minister Nick Boles, Ladbrokes expressed frustration at pesky local authorities like mine, Manchester City Council, asking questions and ‘throwing up road blocks’ to delay their attempts to open more and more betting shops on high streets in our poorest communities.

In his response, Nick Boles assured Ladbrokes that the government’s changes to planning law – ironically, as it happens, inserted into the growth and infrastructure bill – would make it easier for firms like his to swoop in without any meddling from local communities or democratically elected councillors.

The changes the minister refers to, intended to boost our ailing high streets by allowing ‘pop-up shops’ and small independent retailers to open up without going through the bureaucratic ringer, actually make it much easier for firms like Ladbrokes to move in to empty prime retail sites without even needing to apply for planning permission for a period of two years. Coming from a government supposedly on a mission to create jobs and growth, this is an incredibly short sighted move.

A recent report by Landman Economics commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling highlighted the negative impact the increase in new betting shops and relocation of betting shops on to primary retail sites is having on the wider retail economy. Most worryingly it showed that every £1bn gambled away on fixed odds betting terminals sees a net reduction of 13,000 jobs.

The bookies are taking advantage of the economic slump to open more and more shops in prime locations, making it more difficult for retailers to come back when the economy picks up. In my own ward of Manchester city centre there are already 26 betting shops and I’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to stop applications for three more over the last 12 months. In the city as a whole we’ve got 130 betting shops with 474 FOBTs – one for every 1,000 people in the city – and £509 million gambled last year.

A One Nation Labour government should back communities, not the betting industry. There are six things an incoming a Labour government should do immediately:

– Lower the maximum stake you can place on a FOBT from the current £100 down to £2 – the level of other gaming machines.

– Reduce the speed at which you can play – currently you can place a bet every 20 seconds, four times faster than in a casino.

– Limit the number of machines in any one betting shop from four to two.

– Put betting shops (and payday lenders while we’re at it) in their own usage class for planning purposes and give local authorities new powers to reject applications if they think there will be a negative impact on the local area, especially in communities with high levels of deprivation where bookies are preying on the most vulnerable.

– Ensure that local authorities have sufficient resources to carry out regular test purchasing to make sure existing betting shops are sticking to the law.

– Conduct an urgent review of alleged money laundering using these machines as exposed in the Guardian last week and give police the resources to investigate and take action.

These measures would show the public that Labour is on their side, not on the side of the betting shops making billions by exploiting the most vulnerable people in society and blighting our high streets. There couldn’t be a clearer contrast between us and the Tories.