Plans to improve high streets align with Health Equity North ‘Ghost Towns’ report recommendations

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has today (August 10) announced new plans aimed at improving high streets, with new vape shops requiring planning permission and councils receiving more powers to block new betting shops.

The announcement aligns with the observations and recommendations from our 2025 report: Ghost Towns: The Decline of the High Street and Health Inequalities.

Commenting on the announcement, lead author of the report Dr Eman Zied Abozied, Research Associate at Newcastle University, said: “We welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement to grant councils greater powers to regulate high street outlets such as vape shops and betting shops. This represents a positive step toward addressing the concentration of unhealthy amenities that disproportionally affects the health and wellbeing of communities in deprived areas, particularly across the North of England. 

“Health Equity North’s ‘Ghost Towns‘ report showed a decline in the quality of our high streets, with rising numbers of unhealthy amenities such as bookmakers, vape shops, pawnbrokers, and takeaways. This increasingly unhealthy environment is likely to exacerbate existing health inequalities and worsen the North-South health divide. 

“A key recommendation in the report was to increase local authority regulation of these amenities. We are pleased to see the Prime Minister’s commitment to tackling the issue by putting greater power into the hands of councils and communities. 

“We hope to see further steps taken to restore local high streets through investment in the growth of health promoting amenities, such as supermarkets, libraries and pharmacies, and high street redesign in the places that need it most.”