Recommendation 6

Local councils should be able to protect certain areas from permitted developments rights where they have legitimate concerns about the impact on town centres, high streets and commercial centres. We welcome the amendment to the proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework clarifying that Article 4 directions may be applied “to prevent the loss of the essential core of a primary shopping area”. This is an improvement on the original proposal, although it is too early to say if it goes far enough. It is also not clear why the Government feel it necessary to amend the current wording or what problem it is trying to fix. In addition, we still believe that councils should not have to wait one year before being able to apply a direction without also being liable to pay compensation to developers.