Councils told to reduce demands

BCSC conference 2004: president to call for new approach to small-town regeneration Local authorities must scale back their planning gain demands on developers in order to kickstart retail-led regeneration in smaller towns, a new report will claim. The British Council of Shopping Centres’ The smaller towns report: Delivering retail-led renaissance in towns and smaller cities will be unveiled at its annual conference in Manchester next week. The report comes up with 15 remedies, which it says will improve the attractiveness of town centres for shoppers and, ultimately, investors. These include urging local authorities to promote mixed-use schemes by making section 106 requirements – and any extra planning charges the government introduces next year – less onerous. Council president Andrew Ogg said: “There will always be a need for planning obligations, but we don’t want them to be used as a benchmark for demanding higher contributions, which penalises developers in smaller centres where margins are tighter. We don’t want another cost for developers to absorb.” The BCSC also blames the “best value” competition culture in local authorities for putting off developers. Ogg said: “Commercial property developers are frequently thwarted by the inability of local authorities to identify and embrace opportunities in non-competitive discussions. “Best value should mean the right partner delivering sustainable value for the long term, rather than the ability to demonstrate competitive procedure to deliver capital receipts in the short term.” John Bullough, retail director at Grosvenor, which supported the research, said councils and the private sector must work together from “the earliest stage”. The report was compiled by the Bartlett school of planning.