Opinion: Retail planning needs strong framework

When Government starts talking about the opportunities that reforming the planning system presents for stimulating growth and productivity, I get nervous.

By James Lowman, chief executive, Association of Convenience Stores

Not because I am anti-development or don't appreciate that retail-led regeneration is a good option for some areas. What springs into my mind is the harried local planning officer struggling to manage his existing workload, trying to interpret the latest in a series of confusing messages he has received from Ministers.

Planning Policy Statement 4: Planning for Prosperous Economies will be the rule book for deciding where and how new retail developments can be built. The policy will cover a wide spectrum from massive out of centre retail parks to edge-of-centre supermarkets in market towns.

The policy includes plenty of positive language. For example we support strongly the commitment to the town centre-first approach to deciding where new development should be built. The Government is thankfully yet to be seduced by the sweet nothings whispered by those that advocate giving supermarket developers a free reign to build outside our urban and rural centres.

However we are very concerned about the removal of the existing robust and objective approach to assessing new developments. Under the current policy, when an out of town retail development is proposed there are a series of tests that it must satisfy before being given the green light. These cover a range of issues including the impact on the environment, transport and the character of the area. However, crucially they cover the economic impact of the development on the existing retail centres and most controversially whether there is a proven 'need' for a new development. The proposal is to replace these tests with an overarching impact assessment.

If you listen to some, removing the 'need' test is a vote for investment and growth while retaining it offers only restrictions and decline. We don't agree. We believe that a need test is necessary to prevent developments that are too big and will take away too much trade from centres. In a successful centre retail is at its most competitive, sustainable and diverse, encompassing large and small format, multiples and independents and market stalls and specialists.

By removing not just the need test but the robust guidance about what out of town development is and isn't permissible, the Government is making it a little bit easier for those that want to build unnecessary and unpopular developments to get their way.

That after all is the crux of the matter. As it stands it is the retail developers that call the tune, while overworked and underskilled local planning officers are focused on reacting to the developers agenda, considering applications, reconsidering slightly amended applications for developments they have already rejected and handling lengthy and repeated appeals.

It is these planners who will bear the brunt of public disapproval if out of town developments blight centres. But unless Government gives them the tools, the resources, the guidance and the encouragement to support town centres, local planners will have been let down and the communities they serve will ultimately suffer.