NEWS
4 ASIAN TRADER 18 APRIL 2025
The House of Commons passed
the Tobacco and Vapes Bill after
MPs voted 366 to 41 to approve
it at third reading.
The Bill, which will now
proceed to the House of Lords,
proposes to increase the legal
age for tobacco sales by one
year every year, starting in
2027, ensuring that individu-
als born on or after January 1,
2009, will never legally be able
to buy tobacco (key word:
legally).
It will also give the govern-
ment powers to stop vapes and
other consumer nicotine
products (such as nicotine
pouches) from being deliber-
ately branded and advertised
to appeal to children.
“When this government
took ofce, we promised to
create a smokefree generation.
Today we are delivering on that
promise,” public health and
prevention minister Ashley
Dalton said, concluding the
debate.
Commenting on the
development, leading vape
brand Elfar has warned that
two million UK vapers may
turn to illegal vapes or return
to tobacco if the government
over-regulates the sector.
Commons clears Tobacco
and Vapes Bill
Making a stand
o, the beginning of April turned out to be somewhat
eventful. With “Tarif Tuesday” the USA finally got its
own back on the world and stopped being a victim of
everybody else, so let’s hope it is feeling better now, and not
upset about any soon-to-arrive stagflation. Here in the UK,
we received the NI increases and the raft of other legislative
measures that were being feared for many months, the
efects of which we shall now observe in real time. The
Tobacco and Vapes Bill, new recycling rules and so on are still
to kick in, so that will be fun over the summer.
That’s mostly just economics, though. When looking at
the plight of independent retailers from street level, one of
the very biggest problems, apart from the oncoming Trump
Slump and the ongoing Starmer Drama, is the unprecedent-
ed crime wave.
Since lockdown – and it was in lockdown, with its suspen-
sion of normal rules and arbitrary ordering around as if we
were all naughty children – that the ultra-high levels of
violent and brazen shop crime took of. Since that time,
something has happened to the criminal classes that has
made them utterly unafraid of punishment and incentivised
to act exactly as they want and to take whatever they wish,
knocking down anybody who stands in their way.
As we are constantly told by our know-everything
betters, society (meaning brutal and greedy capitalists –
that’s you, by the way) and not the criminal is to blame for all
bad things that criminals do. In a fair society there would be
no crime because everybody would have sufcient for their
needs.
Well, good luck with that. Grown-ups who live in the real
world understand that malevolence is innate and that hard
lines need to be drawn to keep crime away from innocent
lives as much as is possible. Those lines have been ever more
rubbed out by a teary judiciary and a sobbing political class
for many decades. They always knew who the real ofenders
were, and it wasn’t the shoplifters and robbers.
The £200 rule for shoplifting value – always an insult to
convenience, which does not yet specialise in Fortnum &
Mason hampers – has evolved into a situation where
retailers rarely report anything less than a fatal stabbing, as
they have grown accustomed to ofcial disinterest in their
plight.
The aggravated legislation has always been an insult on
top of this kind of injury. But now, with such laws as the
Tobacco and Vapes Bill, legal jeopardy and economic mock-
ery blend together, further destroying the ability to make a
living, while putting retailers at physical risk (not to men-
tion legal obligation to act in place of absent law enforce-
ment), refusing fully grown and doubtless angry men the
cigarettes they demand.
With this issue of Asian Trader, we are sending out the call
that enough is enough. Join us by using the postcard at-
tached to the magazine to contact the Prime Minister to let
him know that the storeowners of the UK will no longer take
it. It is time to make a stand.
The University of Stirling and
the Scottish Grocers’ Federa-
tion have highlighted the
impact of rising staf costs on
the convenience retail sector.
The UK National Living
Wage is now £12.21 per hour, a
6.7% increase on 2024/25. This
is alongside employer’s
National Insurance (NI)
contributions swelling from
13.8% to 15%, while the
threshold from which employ-
er NI is charged falls from £9.1k
to £5k.
This means the true cost for
retail employers will be as
much as £16.72 per hour, a
jump of £1.33 on the previous
year, accounting for statutory
costs, such as National Insur-
ance and Holiday Pay, as well as
additional employment
expenses such as uniforms and
administration costs.
Meanwhile, a recent survey
of SGF members shows that
more than 97% of respondents
were less likely to hire more
staf, due to the wage increas-
es. Nine out of ten of owners/
managers reported working
over 55 hours per week, just to
keep costs down.
If the trend continues the
NLW will almost double
within a decade (£7.20 in 2016
to £12.21 in 2025). As a result,
additional staf costs will
inevitably be passed onto
customers, many of whom are
also struggling to manage their
household budgets, and stores
will be open for fewer hours or
will have to consider whether
they can continue to trade.
“Despite many retailers
working longer and longer
hours to keep staf costs down,
it means some stores will need
to cut staf hours yet again,”
said SGF Chief Executive, Dr
Pete Cheema OBE.
New financial year brings new financial horrors
SGF highlights true cost
of NLW and NI hikes