You may have seen press reports today regarding Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s announcement on providing powers to councils to rejuvenate our high streets, referencing vape and betting shops, and suggesting changes to the Gambling Act 2005 (‘the Act’). The announcement does not contain details, but importantly it suggests that the principle of ‘aim to permit’ will be removed from the Act.
The announcement suggests a fast track consultation on the new measures would take only six weeks, with the target of having the new legislation in place by the start of 2027.
‘Aim to permit’
We have had ‘aim to permit’ for 20 years, since the Act was introduced. Section 153 defines the principles to be applied by the licensing authority of a council when determining a gambling premises licence application, which would include betting shops and adult gaming centres as well as bingo and casino premises. The section states that “in exercising their functions under this part a licensing authority shall aim to permit the use of premises for gambling…” The licensing authority shall ‘aim to permit’ in accordance with Codes of Practice and guidance issued by the Gambling Commission. Their decision must also be reasonably consistent with the licensing objectives, and any decision must be in accordance with the council’s own Statement of Policy under the Act.
The licensing objectives being:
(a) preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime,
(b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and
(c) protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
If the government scrap the ‘aim to permit’ principle, this will remove the presumption of a grant subject to the operator’s ability to uphold the licensing objectives.
Gambling premises on our high streets
The headlines refer to betting shops, and the announcement also references adult gaming centres (‘AGCs’) and how AGCs have spread rapidly across many town centres. This is misleading. According to Gambling Commission figures, numbers of AGCs have fallen, with 1610 reported in March 2015 compared to 1415 in March 2025.
Significantly there are far fewer betting premises now on our high streets than in previous years, with Gambling Commission figures showing that licensed betting premises numbers have fallen from 8995 in March 2015 to 5825 in March 2025, a fall of circa 3,000.
Overall numbers of gambling premises have fallen in the same period from 11,758 to 8234.
Impact on existing licensed premises
It’s difficult to say how the removal of ‘aim to permit’ will impact on existing AGCs and betting shops, as there is no suggestion at this stage that existing licences will be directly impacted by the changes. It is likely that variations to existing licences will be more challenging as the principles that the licensing authority must follow will unlikely be as positive as is currently the case under ‘aim to permit’. Indeed existing operators may benefit, in that it will likely become more difficult for competitors to open gambling premises nearby.
How will this impact for applications and local councils?
We can say, with some certainty, even without the details, that applications for new licences for gambling premises, will be more challenging. It is likely that where applications attract objections, the change will allow licensing committees to more readily refuse an application or attach conditions.
As a result, there may be less new applications for the licensing authority of the council, and less of an opportunity for the industry to expand and innovate. We’ll know more once we have the detail on the proposed wording of the changes to the Act and the legal test to apply when determining an application. It may also be that any new applications become more hard fought, as applicants have more work to persuade a council that a new licence should be granted. This could also see more appeals to the magistrate’s court, particularly in the early years, as the courts are asked to interpret the new legal test.
Gambling Impact Assessments
This announcement comes on the back of changes to the Act, already made by the previous leadership, which introduced into the statute books the concept of “Gambling Impact Assessments”, in respect of gambling premises licence applications. Those changes give councils the ability to opt out of ‘aim to permit’ where they consult and evidence risks to the licensing objectives. Quite where it leaves these changes remains unclear. It’s possibly somewhat of a surprise that this further announcement has been made before Gambling Impact Assessments were implemented or had time to make changes to our high streets.
So, much to yet understand, but there is clearly the political will to provide more power to councils to restrict gambling premises.
To affect the announcement amendments will be required to the primary legislation of the Act, requiring parliamentary time. The timescales, to have the changes made by early 2027, will be tight (possibly hence the short 6 week consultation period suggested). And government still has bingo licensing and changes to category D gaming machines on their to do list, along with other remnants of the 2023 Gambling Act white paper.
For further information, please feel free to contact any of our specialist gambling solicitors.
