Retail Developments (Hansard, 15 March 1999)

§ Mr. Steinberg
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make money available to local authorities to help them to enable shopping centres in town and cities to compete equally with designated out-of-town shopping areas. [75277]

§ Mr. Raynsford
The Government's policy is to encourage retail development in the centre of towns and cities rather than at out of town locations. This was set out in our Response to the Select Committee report on Shopping Centres [Cmnd 3729], which also reaffirmed our commitment to Planning Policy Guidance note 6 (PPG6): Town Centres and Retail Developments. Through our funding of the Association of Town Centre Management and the Civic Trust, we have been assisting local authorities to promote town centre management by preparing and disseminating good practice.

§ Mr. Waterson
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many(a) out-of-town shopping mall and (b) superstore planning applications in England have been refused, and on what principal grounds, on appeal in the past year. [75504]

§ Mr. Raynsford
Planning permission has been refused, on appeal, in respect of two applications for superstores in England, in 1998, primarily on the grounds that they failed the policy tests in PPG6.

§ Mr. Prior
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) if he will make it his practice to publish lists of(a) all outstanding planning permissions for superstores, (b) all superstore planning appeals that have been approved in the past five years, with a summary of the reasons for the approval and (c) all superstore planning appeals that have been refused in the past five years, with a summary of the reasons for the refusal; and if he will make a statement; [75779]
(2) if he will list all superstore planning appeals that have been (a) approved and (b) rejected in the last five years; and if he will make a statement; [75688]
(3) if he will list all the outstanding planning permissions for superstores; and if he will make a statement. [75689]

§ Mr. Raynsford
Most decisions on planning applications for retail developments are taken by local planning authorities. They provide statistical returns on applications which they handle under the general category of "major retail, distribution and servicing". The information requested in respect of appeals is not held centrally over the timescale requested. It is, therefore, not feasible to assemble the information requested, except at disproportionate cost. We have no current plans to publish such lists.