Burnham Pledges to Scrap Aim to Permit Gambling Licensing Rule

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to scrap the “aim to permit” rule, the two-decade-old licensing standard in the 2005 Gambling Act that pushes councils toward approving new betting shops and 24-hour slot machine venues rather than refusing them. The change, announced on August 10, 2026 as part of a wider high street package, would apply across Great Britain and give local authorities the power to reject new gambling premises outright.

Downing Street plans to run a fast-tracked consultation on the measures lasting six weeks, with the aim of having the new rules in place by the start of 2027, The Guardian reported. A No 10 source told the paper: “Local people will actually have more of an input into whether or not those shops should open in the first place, giving them a proper say about how their high streets should look.”

Burnham framed the move as a response to visible high street decline. “The rise of vape shops, betting shops and rogue operators have replaced the shops, services and community spaces that people are crying out for,” he said, per the BBC. “That’s not on. I said we would improve Britain’s high streets, and that’s exactly what we are starting to do.”

What the Pledge Would Change

Scrapping aim to permit removes the legal presumption, built into the 2005 Act, that licensing authorities should approve gambling premises applications that meet the licensing requirements. Under the government’s plans, councils would be able to refuse new betting shops and adult gaming centres, the 24-hour venues built around gaming machines. That element applies Great Britain-wide: England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland operates under its own gambling legislation dating to the 1980s and sits outside the 2005 Act entirely.

A second gambling-specific measure, applying in England only, would require new adult gaming centres to obtain planning permission, adding a planning hurdle on top of the premises licence such venues already need from the local authority. The wider package also brings vape shops under planning control in England and tightens their definition so operators cannot reclassify as convenience stores.

The Betting and Gaming Council, the industry’s trade body, said it supports “tough action against criminal operators” and agrees local people should have a proper say, but called the suggestion that betting shops are spreading unchecked “simply wrong,” pointing to roughly 3,000 shop closures since 2019. The Social Market Foundation, a think tank that has campaigned for the rule’s removal, has called the statutory aim-to-permit duty ‘no longer fit for purpose.’ The Conservative and Reform parties argued the plans would produce more empty high street units without tax relief for other businesses.

How the Aim to Permit Rule Works Today

The rule sits inside the gambling premises licensing system the 2005 Act created. Operators hold an operating licence from the Gambling Commission, but each physical venue also needs a premises licence from the local licensing authority, and those authorities must aim to permit gambling rather than prevent it when they determine applications. Ministers themselves have described the rule as applying “also to licensing applications,” distinct from the planning system, which separately requires permission to create gambling premises or change a building’s use to gambling.

That distinction has mattered in practice. In a Commons debate on January 8, 2026, the government minister responding for the department argued the process is not “a foregone conclusion,” since aim to permit remains subject to conditions, including consistency with the local authority’s own gambling policy statement. MPs pressing for abolition countered that councils face legal challenge, costly appeals and the threat of court costs when they refuse, which loads the practical outcome toward approval even where harm is documented.

Parliament Had Already Voted to Remove It

The pledge lands on a parliamentary record that has been building against the rule for months. The January 8, 2026 debate, secured by Brent East MP Dawn Butler, ended with the Commons resolving without a vote that the aim to permit principle “erodes the ability of local communities to shape their neighbourhoods” and calling on the government to remove it so councils can regulate the spread of gambling premises. Butler told the House she had published an open letter to the Prime Minister that week carrying 280 signatures from councillors, local leaders and mayors. Burnham himself, while still Mayor of Greater Manchester (MANU ), was among the politicians who called on his predecessor Keir Starmer in January 2026 to abolish the rule, the Guardian reported.

At that January debate the government committed to cumulative impact assessments, which let councils make data-driven decisions on licence applications in areas identified as vulnerable to gambling harm, “when parliamentary time allows.” Changes Starmer introduced in April 2026 then gave councils more scope to weigh the number of gambling premises already in an area, but stopped short of scrapping aim to permit, according to the Guardian. The Burnham pledge goes the remaining distance.

Britain’s Betting Estate in Numbers

• 8,234 licensed gambling premises in Great Britain as of March 31, 2025, down 1.1% on the year, per the Gambling Commission’s official industry statistics
• 5,825 of those were betting shops, down 106 (1.8%) on March 2024
• £2.5 billion in gross gambling yield for non-remote betting over the same period, with machines accounting for 48.2% of it at £1.2 billion
• £723.3 million GGY for non-remote arcades, up 9.0%, of which adult gaming centres generated £682.9 million, up 9.6%
• Government analysis cited by Butler put average gross gambling yield per B3 machine at £35,000 a year

What Happens Next for Operators

The immediate event is the consultation: six weeks, fast-tracked, with measures targeted to take effect at the start of 2027. Until legislation or regulation follows, aim to permit remains in force, and nothing in the announcement touches existing premises licences; the powers concern new applications.

The pledge arrives as the retail estate contracts on its own momentum. Betting shop numbers have now fallen for eleven straight reporting periods in the Commission’s statistics, and Betfred has moved to close more than 130 shops this year. Gaming.net has separately tracked the rise of adult gaming centres as a high street format, the venue type now facing both a planning-permission requirement in England and the loss of the licensing presumption across Great Britain. For operators, the practical shift from 2027 is that a compliant application would no longer carry a statutory tailwind: councils could say no, and keep saying it.