MPS DEBATE POWERS OVER NEW STORES

BY JONATHAN PRYNN

227 words

Publication date: 17 January 2007

Source: The Evening Standard

(c) 2007 Associated Newspapers. All rights reserved

PLANS to give councils more power to control the types of shops that can open in their areas will be debated in Parliament this week.

The Sustainable Communities Bill, which will be introduced by Tory MP Nick Hurd, has the declared support of about half of all MPs but is unlikely to be backed by the Government, which is pushing through its own Local Government White Paper.

The Bill requires council planners to promote the 'availability of local shops, post offices and public houses' - giving them cause to reject applications for chain stores if they come at the expense of independent shops. It was inspired by the Evening Standard's Save Our Small Shops campaign.

Mr Hurd said: 'We will be disappointed if the Government does not give the Bill a fair wind given that just under half of the Parliamentary Labour Party signed an early day motion supporting an earlier version.

'Gordon Brown and (environment secretary) David Miliband talk the language of devolved power and this is quite a stern test of that.'

The Commons debate comes days before the Competition Commission reveals its first thoughts on the grocery market.

It is investigating claims that supermarkets have too much power because of their control of development sites, predatory pricing and dominance of the convenience store sector.

<<back>>