Councils are almost powerless to prevent the spread of betting shops on local high streets

The London Borough of Newham recently failed in its attempt to block a new betting shop from opening. Richard Berry looks at the charges against betting shops, particularly the strongest of these objections and the one that is least used by detractors; that betting shop clusters have a negative impact on local economies. The simplest and best solution is to give local authorities much greater autonomy than they have at present to decide what is appropriate for their own areas.