Member

This is, as I say, a multi-million pound industry. It is connected to, part of and a manifestation of organised crime. It is allegedly linked, as you would expect organised crime to be, to other illegal activities, such as money laundering, people trafficking and so forth. As somebody who comes from a local authority background and has always been interested in the public realm, and for a couple of years chaired the Built Environment Select Committee in your Lordships’ House, something that particularly strikes me as troubling is the devastating effect it has on our high streets, because it sucks all life out of them. It is impossible for genuine small traders and small shops to compete with the rents that these people are able to pay, so they suck out the life from the high street. Our urban centres can be hollowed out as a result of these activities. It is not simply the crime or the effect on those who might be smoking dangerous products; it is the social effect on our urban places.