Under the current Use Classes Order, vape shops sit inside Class E, a broad commercial category that also covers cafes, banks, clothes shops and most other shopfronts. One of the effects of sharing that category is that a business can generally change the use of a unit to a vape shop without submitting a planning application, in much the same way a clothes shop could become a coffee shop. The government's announcement, made through a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government blog post on 11 August 2026, says it intends to consult on removing vape shops from Class E and creating a standalone planning use class for them instead.

The stated aim is twofold. First, to stop new vape shops opening in locations where there are strong local concerns, such as near schools, by giving councils and residents an actual say before a shop opens rather than after. Second, to close what the announcement calls a loophole that lets some vape retailers present themselves as general convenience stores to avoid closer scrutiny. Reporting on the plans has also linked them to concerns from the National Crime Agency, which has named cash intensive high street businesses, vape shops among them, as a route used to launder criminal proceeds.

The vape shop proposal did not arrive on its own. It was published alongside a wider set of high street measures covering gambling premises and enforcement powers. Councils and police are set to gain the ability to extend closure orders on premises linked to illicit trade, including mini marts and vape shops caught selling illicit tobacco, from a maximum of six months to up to twelve months. Trade bodies have broadly welcomed this part of the package. The Federation of Independent Retailers and the Association of Convenience Stores both said publicly that longer closure powers and tighter rules would help legitimate shops compete against rogue traders rather than be undercut by them.

On the gambling side, adult gaming centres are set to require planning permission for the first time from the start of 2027, and the government intends to scrap the so called aim to permit rule, which currently steers councils toward approving new betting shop applications. Overall, the package is framed as giving councils and communities more say over the high street, rather than as a vaping specific crackdown.

For the ordinary vape shopper, none of this changes what you can buy today or how much duty you pay on it. The proposals are about where a new shop can open, not about product rules, age limits or pricing, all of which continue to sit under the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 and the Vaping Products Duty rather than this planning package. If your nearest shop is already trading, nothing here suggests it needs to close or reapply for anything retrospectively.

For retailers, the practical effect is mainly on future decisions. Legal commentary on the proposals already advises vape businesses to treat planning risk as part of ordinary site strategy, alongside the usual trading standards checks, well before any consultation is published. That means weighing potential objections, local policy on shop concentration, and proximity to schools when choosing a site, rather than assuming a unit's current Class E status will keep working the same way indefinitely.

• If you run or plan to open a vape shop, treat the 11 August 2026 announcement as an early warning for future site selection, not yet as a live legal requirement.
• If you are a shopper, nothing about what you can buy or where you can buy it has changed because of this announcement alone.
• If you would rather sidestep the uncertainty around physical shop locations entirely, ordering online from an established UK retailer is unaffected by any of these planning proposals.