Melanie Onn, MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes

From Crewe to Cleethorpes, olde worlde market towns and traditional British seaside retreats alike have found themselves home to new visitors. No matter where you are in the country, no village is safe from the peculiarly empty but flashy creeping prominence of these ‘new businesses’. Popping up, where once familiar greengrocers, newsagents or bakeries stood, are glowing, bong fronted vape shops, ‘traditional’ Turkish barbers, and ubiquitous mini-marts. 

Peculiar by the lack of customers, yet turning generous profits, many of these shops share similar characteristics. They operate predominantly in cash, they have vague owners or landlords, their services or products are limited with mysteriously high staff turnover. These fronts mask an array of criminality. Corrosively, these dodgy shops, engage daily in money laundering and illegal trading – putting the public at risk, and hiding billions from the Treasury that could be ploughed into our nation’s frontline services.

Legitimate businesses tell me they are fed up of watching dodgy shops take thousands in revenue weekly, or seeing criminal activity take place with their own eyes, with apparently nothing done to stop it. All the while, honest businesses are doing their best to build a successful business whilst playing by the rules. 

What began as a local concern in my Great Grimsby & Cleethorpes constituency quickly revealed itself as a national problem. While it may be more easily hidden in a bustling city, suddenly finding your town square or market place dominated by an over proliferation of these shops is visceral. It changes the feel of a place, brings connotations of a community on the slide with all that is on offer are 10,000 puff vapes (the legal limit being approximately 600) and fake Chinese Labubus. And with a recent BBC investigation uncovering many of these businesses’ links to organised crime, it is inevitable that communities will retreat from what was once considered a place of safety and comfort.

Strong Government announcements on Pride in Place and in the Tobacco & Vapes Bill are welcome. Steps have been taken to address concerns and put powers back in community hands through community right to buy, powers to stop unwanted shops and introducing new licensing schemes.

However, legislation must go further to prohibit and prosecute ongoing illicit activity across our high streets. 

My campaign to Shut Down Dodgy Shops has received the backing of MPs spanning the length of the country. The campaign asks government to introduce new legislative powers to shut down shops that are involved in criminal activity and present tougher penalties for repeat offenders. 

The campaign also asks that greater support be given to trading standards and local authorities to tackle the issue and that more stringent checks are carried out by landlords renting out commercial units.

With the budget looming the prize of getting this right is colossal. The National Crime Agency estimates each year over 12 billion pound is lost in low level cash-based money laundering. That’s potentially 12 billion pound that can be redistributed amongst our communities and our national health service.   

There is room for everyone on our high streets, but only if everyone plays by the rules. Businesses, be they in Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, or in many other coastal and rural communities across the country, deserve the chance to operate on a genuinely level playing field.

I and my fellow Coast & Country MPs will keep pressing for the fair enforcement of the rules that residents rightly expect for the businesses that make up their high street.