PPS 4 Published

• Posted by David Jones on 6th Jan ’10 at 12:44 UTC
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PPS 4- New guidance for planning and economic development

The Government last week published the long awaited PPS4 entitled “Planning for Economic Development”.

The newly published PPS4 sets out the Governments commitment to town and village centres and whilst the retail needs test has been scrapped the sequential test has been retained alongside a new impact test.

The PPS requires Local Authorities to maintain up to date survey data to assist in the identification of economic and property challenges to be considered in plan making, review and development control decisions.

The requirement for local authorities to prepare and subsequently maintain the survey data will place greater strain upon already stretched planning departments.

The Government clearly wish to strengthen Local Authorities armoury to enable them to resist inappropriate out of centre developments, the effectiveness of polices of restraint may be questionable in cases where local authorities fail to either collate or subsequently maintain accurate and robust data upon existing retail centres.

The planning minister John Healey confirmed that:
“We need to protect and promote town centre economies, which is why I am publishing streamlined guidance strengthening the ability of councils to safeguard local services like shops and pubs– the lifeblood of our towns.

By strengthening the hand of local councils we are giving them the expert tools they need to put the viability and vitality of town centers first in difficult market conditions.
The new tools go further than ever before to protect town centres from the harm large out-of-town developments can have.”

Time will tell whether in the current climate the PPS will actually have any discernable impact, whilst retailing remains depressed and many town centre retail outlets remain vacant local authorities will seek to protect and improve the viability of existing centres, however if local authorities fail to collect appropriate data then it could prove difficult for them to defend appeals for new out of centre retailing.

For more information contact David Jones email or give me a call on 01242 531411.
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