High Street Heist: How to Save the High Street By Relaxing Anti-Competitive Zoning Rules
A new paper by Thomas Walker, a town planning consultant, argues that the United Kingdom needs to reform restrictive planning rules to reinvigorate our town centres:
The National Planning Policy Framework’s ‘primary shopping areas’ (PSAs) designation in town centres concentrates retail and leisure uses in one small zone, creating inactive dead zones outside the PSA and separating retail from the residential areas where its users live.
Primary shopping areas are often dominated by one or two large single-owner shopping centres, limiting the rental market. This allows property owners to charge higher rents to small businesses, hurting the high street. The limited space reduces variety on the high street, making high streets less attractive to shoppers.
Local planning policies are based on retail capacity assessments that can become out of date before the plans are even adopted. These policies then restrict the ability of town centres to adapt to changing market conditions and consumer behaviour.
PSAs are applied inconsistently, including and excluding existing retail areas and failing to respond to the geography of high streets.
The designation of primary frontage streets and PSA boundaries is arbitrary, limiting the potential growth of high streets and town centre economies.
Expanding the PSA and creating secondary shopping areas would encourage increased activity and revive struggling high streets.
Abolishing the PSA policy and retail zoning would make high streets better able to adapt to a changing retail market, as well as creating a fairer environment for small businesses.
Mixed use development, combining retail, office, leisure and residential uses, creates more viable, safe and liveable spaces with night-time activity and the ability to adapt to changing economic and social circumstances.
This paper looks at two concerning case studies of overregulation of the town centre, Stafford & Stone and Milton Keynes, and one welcome case, Aylesbury, of less restrictive local planning rules that shows the benefits of more widespread retail.