Supermarket move ‘could increase traffic’

22 February 2008

The Competition Commission’s proposal that local planning authorities should act to break up local supermarket monopolies by making it easier to approve new, rival stores would ‘encourage extra car journeys’.

This was the reaction of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, supported by the Local Government Association and Campaign to Protect Rural England, to the commission’s suggested remedy to weak competition in local grocery markets.

Local planning authorities would have to assess the need for increasing competition when new applications for supermarkets are made.

The Department for Communities and Local Government is also rethinking the ‘needs test’ for new grocery shopping. The commission agreed with retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda that this was the biggest barrier to new entrants to local markets.

The commission said: ‘A competition assessment is necessary to prevent the emergence of strengthening of a concentrated position held by one grocery retailer in local markets.’

The assessment should be undertaken at the development control stage, and would apply to all supermarkets above 1,000m₂. Most retailers are in favour of such an assessment, which would ‘increase local choice,’ but Tesco, dominant in many local markets, was opposed.

Luke Herbert, RICS head of UK public policy, acknowledged that the ‘competition test’ might prevent one large chain dominating an area.

But, he claimed: ‘Wider environmental and social impacts must also be considered by the Government. Creating additional, large, out-of-town superstores could have a detrimental impact on the sustainability of town centres, and encourage more car journeys.’

Cllr Paul Bettison, chairman of the LGA’s environment board, said: ‘More competition may be good for Tesco and Sainsbury’s, but it isn’t necessarily in the best interests of local people.

‘National directives are not the answer to this issue. Local situations requires a local understanding of complex social, economic and environmental circumstances.’

Tom Oliver, head of public policy at CPRE, said: ‘A narrow obsession with competition between a few giant retailers offering similar products will do little for our quality of life. A new assault on the character of town centres is possible.’

The ‘sound policies’ to test the need for new supermarkets and encouraging town centre location ‘should be retained’.

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Supermarket move ‘could increase traffic’

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