Nick Boles: New planning rules will help betting shops Hilary Benn, the shadow local government minister who obtained the letters under Freedom of Information laws, said: "David Cameron claimed that he would act to protect communities but these documents show that his ministers have been doing the opposite. [They are] by making it more difficult for communities to stop the proliferation of betting shops and undermining the powers used by councils to force applicants for planning permission to explain the social impact of their changes. A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government, said, "The provisions in the growth and infrastructure bill were announced to parliament three months before the department received a letter from Ladbrokes. To suggest the government was somehow influenced by the betting industry is simply untrue.