‘Something needs to be done about betting shops – they're spoiling our high streets and leeching off our most vulnerable residents.'

This has been an oft made lament over the past few years, and the issues of clustering or wider proliferation are ones about which most of us in local government are fully aware but remain a cause for frustration.

Despite regular calls for government to give councils the tools to tackle the problem, ministers have always been reluctant to help.

And now, as predicted, the blight of the bookies is worse than it's ever been. A London Assembly report last year – Open for Business: Empty shops on London's high streets – found a 13% increase in betting shops across London, and this growth is also evident in towns and cities around the country.

The business model of many of these multi-million pound gambling firms seems to involve cynically targeting our most deprived communities. They act like financial vampires feeding off vulnerable people, fuelling addictions and other problems, adding to the difficulties of already hard-pressed families.

At their worst, the same company will open several branches in the same area to get around rules on the number of fixed odds betting terminals allowed per shop.

There are about 65 in Hackney, with eight on one street alone. This isn't just a Hackney issue though, that kind of statistic is mirrored in many places.

A report published by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling last month found people lost more than £1.4bn to fixed odds terminals across England last year. Of the ten places where the most money was lost, six are counted among England's ten most deprived areas.

Betting shops also sap the vibrancy and variety from our high streets, damage local economies and squeeze out potential enterprises which could use the premises for something positive and constructive – something we need more than ever in these difficult times.

We all know why this is: an outdated planning classification which means bookies can open up without permission in premises which previously housed a wide range of ventures, such as a bank, estate agent, employment agency, pub, restaurant, cafe or hot food takeaway.

We all know the answer: give councils greater control over applications to open a betting shop.  Unfortunately, at the moment we're often powerless to stop bookies from opening, and our residents have no opportunity to have a say.

They see their high streets filling up with the generic facades of red, blue and green and wonder why this is allowed to happen.