The “Planning White Paper—Planning for a Sustainable Future”, made clear that we are fully committed to promoting the vitality and viability of town centres and to ensuring that the planning system supports the growth and development of town centres.
As the White Paper indicates, we intend to review the current approach in Planning Policy Statement 6: Town Centres (PPS6) to assessing the impact of proposals outside town centres. We will replace the need and impact tests with a new test which has a strong focus on our town centre first policy, and which promotes competition and consumer choice.
We will consult on proposals later this summer and develop new guidance with the industry and other stakeholders, with a view to finalising any changes by spring 2008. We will also take account of the Competition Commission inquiry into the groceries market, before finalising any policy changes.