The Future of Town Centres: Retail Planning Post NPPF

Peter Brett Associates LLP

The Future of Town Centres:Retail Planning Post NPPF(and does the PPG change things?)

Peter Keenan

Adam Bunn

5th June 2014


About Peter Brett Associates

• Firm of development & infrastructure consultants

• Specialist nationwide retail planning team

• Peter Keenan and Adam Bunn lead retail work in the Midlands and London/South East

• Advise local authorities, retailers, developers and investors on retail planning


Our Presentation Today

1. Some headlines on retail & town centre trends

2. NPPF on retail when ‘plan-making’

3. NPPF on retail when ‘decision taking’

4. Our view of retail planning post NPPF


Trends…we used to only shop in shops...

So owners adapted the stock, developers built more space (in-town shopping centres) and the Council managed the parking and public realm


…then, as the town centre grew ….

…space got built away from the High Street

•Supermarkets

•Regional Malls

•Retail Parks


Now there are other ways to shop…

Internet sales are growing


Recession was the tipping point…

• There were failures

• But more significantly we reached the point where less than 50% of sales were on the High Street

(Out of centre and the internet now took the rest)


And what about food?

• 1990s-2000s – big is better

• 2010s onwards – shopping habits changing


Dominant Trends• Market adjustment – with some failures

• Presence on high street less important – fewer shops

with bigger footplates in bigger places

• Retailers are adapting - Click and collect, mobile

shopping

• Investment in food retailing is changing – days of

hypermarket over – growth in convenience store ‘C-store’, online, discount and medium supermarkets are

priorities

So…how do these trends relate to the retail

planning in the post NPPF era?


NPPF – ‘plan making’ – policy requirements

•Para #161 on evidence for town centre uses

•Quantitative & qualitative needs over plan

period

•Role & function of town centres

•Capacity of existing centres to accommodate

development


NPPF – ‘plan making’ - requirements

• Para #23 on drawing up Local Plans

• Define network of centres and town

centre/primary shopping area boundaries

• Allocate range of sites so that needs for town

centre uses are met in full

• Use sequential test to allocate sites

• Set policies for consideration of out of centreproposals

• Para #26 references local floorspace threshold for impact assessments


PPG on ‘plan making’ for retail…

• Importance of vision/town centre strategy

emphasized (para #2 and 3)

• Full account of ‘market signals’ (para #4)

• Health check indicators re-introduced (para #5)

• Where needs cannot be met in town centres –

can look to outside, subject to impact/sequential

(para #6)

• But now very limited guidance on how to

assess ‘need’


Our view on the key challenge

‘allocate a range of suitable sites to meet the scale

and type of retail, leisure, commercial, office,

tourism, cultural, community and residential

development needed in town centres. It is

important that needs for retail, leisure, office

and other main town centre uses are met in full

and are not compromised by limited site

availability. Local planning authorities should

therefore undertake an assessment of the need to

expand town centres to ensure a sufficient supply

of suitable sites’


Tensions from this Key Challenge

• Retail is dynamic/forecasts variable/uncertain…

• So allocating sites to meet town centre needs in

full over 15 years seems ambitious(this isn’t even required for housing…)

• Does this encourage ‘out of centre’ where

immediately available/suitable sites are scarce?

• Even so, PPG gives a way out by requiring

impact and sequential tests

• But importance of having up-to-date evidence,

strategies, policies and boundaries emphasised


NPPF on ‘decision taking’

• Only really relevant where LP is out of date, or

the site is edge/out of centre – two key

requirements

• Sequential test (para # 24)

• Impact assessment (para # 26)

• Applications that fail sequential test or if there is

likely to be a significant adverse impact results in

refusal (para # 27)

Seems simple?...


Sequential Test…

• Established by NPPF – no size threshold

• Case Law has established that this should apply

to the development proposed…

Tesco v Dundee Supreme Court Judgment

• Since enshrined in PPG

• But applicant still needs to demonstrate flexibility


Implications of Sequential Test

• Flexibility cannot be ignored

• But applicants are in strong position with named tenants

• Business model promoted very important


Impact Assessment…NPPF says…

• Required if over 2,500 sqm or local threshold - two strands

• Impact on investment in centres (existing, committed and planned)

• Impact on vitality and viability (consumer choice and trade)

• Trigger for refusal is likelihood of ‘significant adverse impact’


Implications of Impact Assessment

• Is 2,500 sqm default threshold too high?

• Can be a subjective outcome

• What is ‘significantly adverse’ ?


Our View of Retail Planning post NPPF

1. Plans and evidence needs to be up-to-date

2. Central opportunity sites need to be proactively promoted

3. Local policies should be drafted to respond to out of centre proposals and a local impact threshold should be set

4. If considering edge/out of centre in policy – ensure impact is assessed


Our View of Retail Planning Post NPPF

5. Increased emphasis on market signals in retail planning

6. Schemes with named retailers are in stronger positions under the sequential test

7. But we have observed increased speculative proposals across the country

8. Promises of new retailers/jobs out of centre vs. harm to town centres

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The Future of Town Centres: Retail Planning Post NPPF

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