From what I’ve read from the legislations thus far is:
Disposables are been outright banned which nearly everyone has no issues with.
Flavours will probably be restricted to only Mint, Menthols, Tobacco and maybe some fruits if we’re lucky.
Non nicotine eliquid will go up by £1 per 10ml, nicotine eliquid of less than 10.9mg will go up by £2 per 10ml and nicotine eliquid with more than 11mg will go up by £3 per 10ml so those who vape salts for pods will essentially double and short fills will be £35 roughly with two nic shots for 3mg. It’s going to be expensive for the average vaper.
Most B&M vape shops may have to close up shop due to the huge amount of tax been imposed to keep their physical store running and may migrate to selling online or selling their stocks to other vendors to sell off. Places like Ecigone, Vaping 101, VPZ and other major vaping outlets will most likely survive but feel the financial sting. That’s only my hypothesis.
DIY I don’t think will be effected too much since the flavourings (one shots might get away with it as well), VG and PG are used in the food industry and it won’t be in the governments best interest to tax it but DIY will feel the financial sting when it comes to the nicotine itself so you’ll still get flavourings, PG and VG after the legislations are put through. Plus I don’t think the government cares about the DIY side of things since it’s such a niche and will continue to be a niche.
My plans are to vape like it’s 2013/2014 by vaping in a 0.5ohm+ restrictive direct lung configuration, cutting my nicotine strength by half from 3mg to 1.5mg and I’ve already started mixing my own eliquids, in fact either at the Expo or after the Expo I’ll be buying a bulk of 30ml concentrates from Alchemist Cupboard, Chefs Flavours and Nom Nomz. I’ve pretty much stocked up on nicotine but will probably top up again before the legislations kick in.
Out of all the vapers in the UK I’d say a good portion will probably go back to smoking once they can no longer get disposables, some maybe lucky and just never vape or smoke again. Some vapers just don’t care that they’ll be restricted to mint, menthol and tobacco flavours and won’t care about paying extra for it. The more hobbyist vapers will probably give DIY ago and stick with it and a large portion will give DIY ago then give up from failing to make anything good then resort to buying from those in closed groups who can mix or buy from dodgy corner shop dealers with bathtub eliquids which will no doubt cause a surge of health issues.
We’ll survive but there will be a very clear two different types of vapers and us real hobbyists will be very few and far between.
