Newsroom

Industry chiefs call for “localism – not nimbyism”

A locally-driven planning system can provide the catalyst to unlock development and help grow the UK economy – but only if communities get real incentives to accept new development, an industry summit heard today.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, and Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Corporate and Legal Affairs Director at Tesco, told the breakfast seminar that the property and retail sectors were ideally-placed to play a key role in delivering Government’s objectives for a private sector-driven recovery.

However, this will require government to press ahead as soon as possible with plans to give communities direct incentives to back sustainable development, such as the New Homes Bonus and the local retention of business rates.

Liz Peace said: “The Government’s desire to see a locally-drive planning system has the potential to deliver better development that has real buy-in from local communities. However, we would urge ministers to ensure their planning changes help stimulate the growth needed to get the economy moving and pull the country out of debt. Incentives to expedite new development are needed to ensure that localism does not lead to nimbyism.”

The event, Supporting Economic Growth Through Planning Reform hosted by the BPF and Tesco at One Birdcage Walk, SW1, also saw the publication of a University of Southampton study into the impact of supermarket development on the impact of large foodstores on market towns and district centres.

The three-year study, the first research completed in this area for more than 10 years, revealed that supermarkets built on the edge of town centres play an important role in enhancing their vitality and viability.

It also found little support for widely held views linking supermarket development to the decimation of existing centres and their retail diversity.

Neil Wrigley, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Southampton, said: “Supermarkets built in the centre or edge of centres sites play a vital role in helping to maintain and enhance the role of district centres. They claw back trade in to the town.”

Lucy Neville-Rolfe said: "Against a background of savings and cuts, it is clear that the private sector can play a key role in delivering the Government’s objectives for development and growth. This new research from the University of Southampton shows that retail will be able to make an important contribution to this agenda by encouraging vibrant high streets, improving the fortunes of town centres and supporting local economies. " 

ENDS

Notes to editors

The British Property Federation has welcomed much of government’s planning agenda. In addition to the speedy introduction of incentives to communities, the BPF has urged ministers to:

• Maintain a duty on local authorities to assemble a well founded evidence base for the housing and other development needs of their communities and to implement policies based on that evidence

• Get tax increment financing (TIF) on the statute book as soon as possible, an initiative which has the potential to unblock many important regeneration schemes which are currently unviable

• Remove bureaucracy and streamline decision-making by simplifying the plethora of national guidance, slimming down the planning application process and ensuring that new neighbourhood plans add real value and not another layer of bureaucracy

• Press local authorities to use the powers and resources at their disposal - including the disposal of surplus land and the use of CPO powers more effectively to expedite desirable development

• Manage the transition to a localist system in a way that avoids years of uncertainty

For more information or an interview please contact:

For the BPF: Patrick Clift, Media and Public Affairs Manager, at pclift@bpf.org.uk, or on 07834 439 505, or Paul Sweeney, Media Assistant, the British Property Federation at psweeney@bpf.org.uk  – 020 7802 0113 / 07841 732194

For Tesco and the University of Southampton: Dominic Morgan, Managing Director, Financial Dynamics at dominic.morgan@fd.com or on 020 7269 9343.