§ 59. Mr. Newensasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will issue guidelines to local authorities on the granting of planning consents for out-of-town shopping sites, especially in relation to the risk of the growth of a monopoly in the hands of a limited number of firms.
§ Mr. John SilkinThe existing advice about the planning considerations affecting proposals for out-of-town shops and shopping centres was issued four years ago in Development Control Policy Note 13. I have been reviewing this, with my right hon. Friends concerned with retailing and with prices, in the light202W of experience gained since that time. My Department will now be consulting the bodies concerned on a revision of the note. This revision will necessarily be confined to planning issues and any question of a monopoly arising from the development of large new stores is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection. When the consultations on this draft revision are complete, we will send a circular to local authorities conveying both the revised planning advice and the lessons that can be drawn, in the fields of retailing efficiency and prices, from experience of the stores already built.
In 1972 local authorities were asked to notify my Department of all proposals for edge-of-town or out-of-town shopping developments with gross floorspace of 50,000 sq. ft. or more. Only a few of the proposals so notified have in fact been called in for decision by Ministers and there is, of course, now considerably more experience of this kind of development. I have accordingly decided that it is now appropriate to raise the notification level to 100,000 sq. ft. The circular telling local authorities of this also contains summaries of the cases that have been decided by Ministers.
Copies of the papers I have mentioned are being placed in the Library.