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BPF welcomes revisions to town centre planning policy

The British Property Federation (BPF) has welcomed revisions made to the planning policy statement (PPS6) on town centre development and investment.

The revisions see the reform of the ‘needs test’, which government believes is a barrier to competition and consumer choice, and its replacement with an ‘impact test’.

The new ‘impact test’ will allow councils to consider a broader range of factors when determining an application.

Retail diversity, impact of new development on town centre investment, and the scope for regeneration and job creation, will be among a long list of criteria that will now be taken into consideration.

These revisions see a new emphasis placed upon generating healthy competition, while also allowing local authorities to protect the existing character of their town centres.

Jonathan Seager, senior policy officer at the BPF, said:

“We fully support the greater emphasis on wider economic factors. This is in line with recent changes consulted upon with regard to PPS 4. Our main concern is about how the changes are to be interpreted by local authorities and developers, which will only become apparent with the publication of guidance. We also wait with interest to see how the government will respond to the Competition Commission’s suggested remedies.”

For more information and all PR and media queries, please contact Andrew Teacher, Head of Media, on 020 7802 0113 or 07968 12 45 45 or ateacher@bpf.org.uk. 

Notes to editors

The PPS6 focuses upon town centre development. Successful town centres need investment and a strong retail mix which can attract shoppers and provide consumer choice.

In recent years the government has focused its attention on encouraging investment into town-centres, with PPS6 playing a vital part by ensuring planning puts town centres first.

The first PPS6 was published in 2005. However it is now being reconsidered and reworked to meet the recommendations of Kate Barker’s Review of Land Use Planning which highlighted the failures of the “needs test” to ensure competition and consumer choice.

The draft changes include:


Using the plan led system to promote town centres:

•In preparing development plans, local authorities (LAs) should support “sustainable economic growth.”

•When expanding town centres, a wider range of shopping, leisure and local services should be provided that “enhance consumer choice and promote competition.”

•Policies need to be flexible and able to respond to economic changes and the needs of business.

•Regional strategies should identify strategic networks of town centres to support the amount of growth envisaged for the region. Where appropriate, they should highlight the need for new centres in areas of major growth, such as identified growth areas and proposed eco-towns.

•New centres should be considered where there are existing deficiencies. Priority should be given to deprived areas where a need exists for better facilities, more employment, etc.


Planning for consumer choice and promoting competition:

•Emphasis is placed on creating town centres with a “good mix of shops and services.”

•LAs should “proactively use the planning process to support the diversification of uses in the town centre as a whole….”

•LAs should “seek to promote competitive town centre environments.”

•Where appropriate, “priority consideration should be given to whether the established character and diversity of their town centres should be protected.”


Assessing need for additional retail and leisure development:

•Both qualitative and quantitative factors need to be taken into consideration.

•In deprived areas with limited facilities, and where proposed development will demonstrably offer real benefits, additional weight should be given to such considerations.


Identify the appropriate scale of development:

•LAs should consider preparing policies “for the scale of developments likely to be permissible in different types of centres.”


Assessing impact

•Where development is proposed in an edge of centre or out of centre location, LAs needs to assess the impact of such development on centres within the catchment of the proposed development and “take account of any wider economic, social and environmental impacts of such an allocation.”

•Where applications are not in accordance with an up to date development plan, applicants must, in general, demonstrate:

-othere are no more central sites where the development could be located – the sequential approach to site selection;

-othere are no unacceptable impacts arising from the development, including on existing centres – the new impact test.