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More crime gangs can be forced out of Britain's struggling high streets if ministers pay for more trading standards officers, council chiefs have declared.

Closing shops and falling demand for town centre businesses have allowed gangsters to establish a foothold in communities, the National Crime Agency has warned.

And the Local Government Association said an expansion of trading standards services will allow council bosses "to play a greater role in fighting crime".

A LGA spokesperson said: "Local authority regulators, such as trading standards teams, play a vital role in tackling crime on our high streets, as part of local partnerships with the police and others.

"However, they can only perform this role if activity is properly funded and the Government takes steps to tackle the growing challenges in workforce capacity.

"For instance, the Government could establish dedicated apprenticeships and recruitment programmes for regulatory services to help councils recruit and retain staff in these roles, or provide targeted funding to employ more trading standards officers.

"Expanding trading standards services will enable local government to play a greater role in fighting crime and safeguarding communities, and we urge the Government to consider how it can support the sector in achieving this."

Reform and the Conservatives have partly blamed Rachel Reeves for the crisis.

Reform UK's economic spokesman, Robert Jenrick, said: "Our high streets are being plagued by shops that are obvious fronts for money laundering, but nothing seems to be done. Instead of pointing at the problem and acting like a bystander, the authorities should be ruthlessly cracking down on them.

Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride added: "Labour is hollowing out Britain's high streets. Boarded up shops damage local economies and create fertile ground for organised crime. Labour's tax raids are driving legitimate businesses out and leaving a vacuum that criminal gangs are all too ready to fill.

"A future Conservative government will cut business rates for thousands of pubs and shops on our high streets - and back business."

More than 13,000 high street units were closed down in 2024, according to analysis by the Centre for Retail Research.

And they fear more than 17,000 could have closed for good last year.

More shops are also set to shut this year, with retailers hammered by Labour increasing the minimum wage and employers' National Insurance contributions.

Steve Rodhouse, of the National Crime Agency, told a Parliamentary inquiry on organised crime: "Law enforcement can only do so much.

"Sometimes there are underpinning conditions around organised crime that we need other departments to step into.

"The ability or desire for people to operate on the high street in this way is, in part, a consequence of perhaps a lack of demand for other types of shops and resources on the high street and other enforcement.

"There is something about looking at the underpinning conditions that allow people to take over properties and it being economically viable for them to do so. I think that is fair."