Britain’s slide into third-worldism

PETE NORTH

Everybody complains about the number of vape shops on the high street. I noted three practically next door to each other in Hull the other week. There is no possible way there is a market for these shops. I’m a regular vapist but I have never had cause to go into a vape shop for any reason.

We can take a reasonably good guess as to why they actually exist, and it turns out that many of them are operating without proper registration. There is no fear of being caught because trading standards inspections have collapsed over the years. Data reveals that 36 trading standards services reported no criminal prosecutions during the 2023-24 financial year, with some teams having fewer than one member of staff per 100,000 people.

If we had the kind of regular local enforcement it would never have got so badly out of hand, but now we’re having to launch major National Crime Agency blitzes. Recently, barbershops and other cash-intensive businesses across England were targeted by police and other law enforcement officers during a three-week crackdown on high street crime.

In total, 380 premises were visited across Operation Machinize, where officers secured freezing orders over bank accounts totalling more than £1m, executed 84 warrants and made 35 arrests. The operation saw 55 individuals questioned about their immigration status and a further 97 individuals safeguarded in relation to potential modern slavery.

In addition, officers seized more than £40,000 in cash, some 200,000 cigarettes, 7,000 packs of tobacco, over 8,000 illegal vapes and two vehicles. Two cannabis farms were also found, containing a total of 150 plants. Ten shops have been shut, with further closures expected as a result of on-going investigations. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

The NCA estimates that £12bn of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, which is typically smuggled out of the country or integrated into the legitimate financial system using a variety of laundering techniques. Cash-intensive businesses such as barbershops, vape shops, nail bars, American-themed sweet shops and car washes are often used by criminals to conceal the origins of illicit cash.

The structural problem, however, is much broader in scope. I noted a few weeks back the backlog in food safety inspections where some new take-aways have never had an inspection. Severe backlogs are also reported in care home inspections. Expanding this line of inquiry we find that the same dynamic exists for HMO fire safety inspections. We also find that two-thirds of English councils have not prosecuted a single landlord in past three years. Councils prosecuted just 64 landlords despite receiving 300,000 complaints from tenants in unfit homes.

Another report says UK Environment Agency prosecutions are 6% of the level they were a decade ago. In 2025, the UK saw a total of 174 environmental-related enforcement cases, which amounted to £11 million in fines. This is 29 fewer cases than last year and a drop of £14 million in total penalties. This continues the decline in enforcement actions by environmental regulators over the last 15 years. Meanwhile, more than 70 UK councils failed to issue single fine for littering last year.

In other news, fraud continues to be under-enforced. The Serious Fraud Office has not concluded a single prosecution this year. Part of this is due to the huge delays in economic crime cases being heard at court. Backlogs in the courts now exceed 70,000, while more than a quarter (27%) of all trials are adjourned, and only 43% go ahead on time. The lack of judicial sitting days and barristers is primarily to blame.

These delays are having a huge impact on economic crime cases, which in the case of fraud amounts to 40% of all criminal activity. Delays incentivise suspects to drag things out longer, creating a vicious cycle of even further delays.

Elsewhere, Shelter reports that under the Renters’ Rights Act, councils will be legally obliged to enforce new legislation designed to clamp down on rogue landlords from 1 May 2026. But councillors have warned MPs that austerity has gutted housing enforcement teams, meaning new tenant rights will remain largely “symbolic” without sufficient funding.

It seems that anywhere you look, enforcement activities are collapsing, along with prosecutions. For years now we’ve been watching the collapse of the administrative state, where important regulation is increasingly meaningless because there is no real penalty for non-compliance. From trading standards through to housing inspection and environmental crimes and serious fraud, there is a diminishing chance of being caught.

Part of the reason for this is the same reason councils are cutting back on mending potholes and collecting rubbish. They are completely hamstrung by statutory obligations, accounting for most of their spend increases. We’re passing more laws all the time, but there’s no resource for enforcement activity or prosecutions.

As such, any party pledging to tackle this scourge must have a plan for containing SEND and adult social care spend, necessitating a bonfire of statutory obligations. They also need a plan to tackle the backlog in courts, restoring local magistrates courts and improving central supervision of inspectorates. This is absolutely essential if we want to tackle the pull factors for illegal immigrants, and shut down the businesses associated with grooming.

But that’s not enough. The training of professional officers must be addressed. Most are now degree courses, which means that potential recruits have to saddle themselves with huge debt to qualify for modestly-paid jobs with relatively limited career prospects. It used to be the case that recruits could complete paid, in-service training, learning on the job – which produced better-trained officers who were already well experienced by the time they qualified. We urgently need to rebuild institutional local knowledge.

It must be understood that the slide towards third-worldism is precisely because we have so many laws but so little enforcement. Enforcement cannot be done on the cheap, and it cannot be done without a functioning court system. If you want to live in a first world country then these are the corners you don’t cut.

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This article (Britain’s slide into third-worldism) was created and published by Pete North and is republished here under “Fair Use”

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