Retailers could face further hurdles before they can open stores after the Competition Commission renewed its recommendations that the government implement a new planning test.
Retailers could face further hurdles before they can open stores after the Competition Commission renewed its recommendations that the government implement a new planning test.
The commission has revised its recommendations for a “competition test”, after a challenge from Tesco earlier this year.
Under revised proposals, retailers will pass the test if they are new to the area, or if four or more different supermarkets are within a 10-minute drive of the proposed site. Where there are three or fewer grocers in the area, the application will go ahead as long as it will operate less than 60% of the groceries sales area.
They will be able to make small extensions to stores, provided they are no more than 300sqm of groceries sales areas and have not been modified in the previous five years.
However, David Greene, partner at Edwin Coe LLP, says the competition test is all about the competition between the big four supermarkets in out of town sites. “It does little or nothing to assist the plight of the convenience stores which continue to struggle against the dominance of the supermarkets,” he adds.
“The competition test is intended to address consumer choice in the out of town shopping malls but that choice is being killed in town by the growing presence and eventual dominance of the big four in the convenience sector.”
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