News Archive 2008

Event - The Planning Convention Jul 2008
NRPF sponsored this year's RTPI Planning Convention in London from 9-11 July, including a reception on the evening of the 9th.

Event: Retail Regeneration & Development 2008 June 2008
Subtitled 'Designing the future landscape of retail', this NRPF-supported event in Central London on 25th June focused on how schemes can contribute and indeed pave the way to local regeneration, identifying both opportunity and best practice in retail design.

Event: European Retail Markets Driving Communities June 2008
The WUWM Retail Conference was held in Hamburg on 12th and 13th June

House of Commons Debate May 2008
The Westminster Hall Supermarkets debate on 13th May included discussion of the need test and proposed competition test.

Retail Planning in London May 2008
Michael Bach's recent article in Planning in London considers the impact of recent and possible future policy changes on retail and town centre planning in Greater London.

PPS London Elections Briefing May 2008
A briefing note from PPS Group looks at the likely impact of new London mayor Boris Johnson on planning matters in the capital.

Competition Commission Final Report Apr 2008
The final report of the Groceries Market inquiry recommends a Competition Assessment within the planning system, as suggested in the earlier proposed remedies. The report discusses some of the responses to those proposals - see section 7.34 onwards (the NRPF response is here).

BIDs Briefing Note Apr 2008
A new paper in our series prepared by the Insititute of Retail Studies at the University of Stirling looks at Business Improvement Districts.

Event - ACS Summit 2008 Apr 2008
The Association of Convenience Stores annual flagship event in Birmingham on April 24th will focus on innovation, community and the environment.

Event - BURA Seaside Symposium Mar 2008
An event looking at the diversification and regeneration of seaside places, held in Blackpool from 5-7 March.

Under Served Markets project Mar 2008
Materials from the recent BitC Under Served Markets project practitioner workshop in London and the USM Reseach Guide are now online, along with more details and materials from earlier events in the series.

NRPF Knowledge Base Updated Mar 2008
The latest update to our Knowledge Base, looking critically at relevant research from 2007, is now online. Our recommendations for the retail planner's bookshelf have also been updated, along with the annotated list of useful websites.

New Book: Open for Business Mar 2008
Photographer (and NRPF secretary) George Nicholson's forthcoming book 'Open for Business' celebrates the shops and market of Fulhams' North End Road. Read the afterword by NRPF chairman Chris Brearley which addresses the hot topic of secondary shopping; to see the foreword by the BBC's Evan Davis you'll need to read the book!

Ministerial Statement Mar 2008
CLG Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Iain Wright's recent response in a Westminster Hall debate on High Street Shops gives more clues about the forthcoming revisions to PPS6.

Food Security Mar 2008
In a recent lecture ‘Food Security: are we sleepwalking into a crisis?’, Prof. Tim Lang of City University explored the clash between our cheap food culture and the challenge of providing a sustainable food supply for the future. Another related lecture.

Floorspace Statistics and Consultation Mar 2008
DCLG has released floorspace and rateable value statistics for commercial properties, including retail, in England & Wales at 1 April 2007. A consultation on the future of these statistics has now closed.

Making Retail Research Accessbile Mar 2008
A recent ESRC event aimed to discover the big questions in retail that the academic community can help to address, based around a report by the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM).

NRPF Research Programme Feb 2008
The research page has been updated with details of our latest projects.

Competition Commission Remedies Feb 2008
The Competition Commission has published the provisional decision on remedies for the Groceries Market inquiry. This recommends a Competition Assessment is included within the planning process at the development control stage, with the OFT as a statutory consultee, for grocery store developments larger than 1000sq m. based on fascia count and floorspace, but no other specific changes to the planning system.

Retail Development Bill - Update Feb 2008
The debate from the second reading in the Lords of this Private Members' Bill to "provide support for small retail businesses; to establish the Office for Retail Planning; to make provision about retail planning and development" etc. is worth reading, especially the ministerial response (Lord Bassam) for insight into how the Government thinks it is addressing the issues.

Community Infrastructure Levy Jan 2008
DCLG have published a document on the proposed Community Infrastructure Levy, setting out its views on how this would operate. Retail is not explicitly mentioned, but is currently one of the forms of development which would contribute.

Consultation on 'Call In' Directions Jan 2008
DCLG is consulting on proposed changes to 'call in' directions. The Shopping Direction would be cancelled. A new Direction would reduce the number of cases notified to Government Offices by cutting out all retail developments between 2,500 sqm and 4,999 sqm and all extensions under 2,500 sqm.

Consultation on draft PPS4 Jan 2008
A draft of new Planning Policy Statement 4: Planning for Sustainable Economic Development has been issued by DCLG for consultation.

Retail Data Briefing Note Jan 2008
A new briefing note considers the evidence base for retail planning, the latest in our series by the Insititute of Retail Studies at the University of Stirling.

Event - Retail Property Forum Jan 2008
Retail Week's Property Directors' Forum took place in central London on 22nd January.