Government backs policy for ‘edge of town’ retail projects

17 July 2008
 
The Government has proposed making it easier for retailers to gain permission for shops outside town centres, where wider benefits outweigh adverse impacts on existing shops.

Under the proposals, the Government would ask local planning authorities to retain the ‘town centre first’ policy, and to proactively expand town centres, including on edge-of-centre sites, to ‘increase linked trips and pedestrian activity,’ benefiting town centres.

But communities secretary, Hazel Blears, is also proposing scrapping the ‘needs test,’ where retail development is only allowed if a demand for additional shopping can be demonstrated.

She argued that simply assessing whether consumer expenditure justified new retail development had ‘stifled consumer choice’, and instead proposed a more detailed study of the impact of edge-of-centre and out-of-town development on town centres.

Planning permission should be granted for non-town centre development, even where there were ‘some adverse impacts’, if these were ‘outweighed by significant wider economic, social and environmental benefits’.

Blears said that changes to the Planning Policy Statement 6 were necessary for town centres to thrive, given rising car ownership and ‘ever greater competition’ from online traders.

Alison Quant, vice-president of the County Surveyors’ Society, said a more sophisticated approach to assessing the impacts of retail proposals, including their accessibility and climate change impacts, was ‘to be welcomed’.

But Bob Donaldson, the Technical Advisors Group’s new president, warned that ‘letting market forces dictate the location of development is likely to be disastrous for town centres’. This would make it harder to ‘recover from the traffic implications of the profusion of out-of-town retail units’.

Click here to view the Proposed Changes to Planning Policy Statement 6

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