The Government is taking significant action to tackle high street money laundering and the organised crime that drives it, which has become an increasingly visible threat in our communities. Organised crime groups are exploiting cash intensive businesses to launder criminal proceeds, evade tax, and enable wider criminality across our high streets up and down the UK. The National Crime Agency assesses that it is likely that at least £1bn is laundered through a range of UK high street businesses such as, barbers, vape shops, take aways, and other cash – intensive sectors. Addressing this threat is a priority for this Government. On 19 May 2026, the Government announced a £30 million crackdown targeting cash intensive business such as barber shops, vape stores, mini-marts and sweet shops operating on our high streets, over three years. This includes the following activities:

• £20million of funding will go towards and enhanced law enforcement response, including establishing a new multi-agency coordination cell based in the National Crime Agency.
• Through this funding, police officers will also be uplifted across forces in hotspot regions. Altogether, 75 new police officers will be recruited across the NCA, Greater Manchester Police, West Midlands Police and a joint Kent Police and Essex Police Unit
• Trading Standards will also be backed with £6 million in new funding to bolster the response to sham businesses in at-risk local authorities. New officer training will be rolled out to identify suspicious businesses, strengthen business compliance and boost enforcement.
• A new cross government High Street Organised Crime Unit has also been established to bring together government departments, policing partners and Trading Standards. The unit will be responsible for identifying what more is needed – from stronger powers to better co-ordination – to stop this criminal activity from happening in the first place
• The remainder of the funding is split between HMRC and immigration enforcement