Dawn Butler

In the time that I have, I would like to touch on two important areas with regards to backing business and creating economic growth. The first is the tourist levy. London is the gateway to British tourism. Of the 38 million inbound visits to the UK in 2023, just over half were to our capital. I therefore welcome the Government’s announcement of this measure, but I would like to see a little more pace and progress. That legislation could do so much for boroughs such as Brent, which includes Wembley stadium; I hope there will be a 50:50 split in the visitor levy. Secondly, I want to touch on high streets, which I have mentioned in this Chamber a number of times. When we talk about growth and investment, we have got to think about where that comes from. We have to ensure that we have resilient local communities. If the Government committed to scrapping “aim to permit”, which is part of the Gambling Act 2005, there would be a dramatic effect on the growth of our local economy and high streets. “Aim to permit” means that councils are often powerless to refuse applications for betting shops, even if there is public protest and the clustering of shops, like there is in my constituency. As shown in videos I have made, gambling shops are disproportionately found in areas that are more economically deprived, so the Government would be carrying out a justice for all those areas if they were to scrap that measure. I have asked people what they want to see on their high streets, and even people coming out of gambling shops did not say gambling shops; they said they wanted gyms, libraries and cinemas—literally anything but a gambling shop. This change would cost the Government nothing and could have been done in the King’s Speech—I am disappointed that it was not—but we can make progress. I acknowledge the Government’s gambling impact assessment, introduced through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026. That is a good step forward in ensuring that local people’s voices are listened to, but it really is not enough. I wrote a letter to the Government that had almost 300 signatures, and I will continue to update that letter until the Government do what I ask—it gets more signatures all the time. I warmly welcome the drive for economic growth. The IMF has upgraded the Government’s growth forecast, which is good, but we need to do better and think about where that growth comes from and who it will benefit. I feel that ending “aim to permit” will do exactly as I have outlined.