Commission urges turning retail parks into thriving communities

A report for the government has said that town halls should encourage the redevelopment of retail parks and large supermarkets into communities that include homes, shops and businesses.

The proposals are contained in the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’s interim report, Creating space for beauty, which says that the new ‘mixed use’ communities should be supported by new public transport to reduce reliance on cars – and are part of plans to revisit these ‘boxland’ developments.

The report also encourages communities to be given an earlier say in the development process, encouraging greater use of master-planning – rather than communities engaging in town ‘planning by appeal’. It also suggests that councils should celebrate examples of bad schemes they have turned down and used as examples to encourage beautiful design.

Other interim recommendations to the government include: high streets should be beautiful, walkable, well-connected places for people to live and work with a greater mix of buildings that includes smaller shops, businesses and homes; and any financial support from Homes England and local councils for a development should ‘aim for beauty’ with more work required to understand how this might be achieved and measured.

Nicholas Boys Smith, interim chairman of the commission, said: “Redeveloping abandoned out of town retail parks and ugly old supermarkets would deliver something much more beautiful in the form of thriving new communities where people can raise a family, work or settle down.

“Our initial report sets many ways we can make our country more beautiful while fulfilling the needs of future generations who will need a roof over their head. We need to move the democracy up-stream from development control to plan-making.

“Beauty should not be just a property of the old buildings or protected landscapes but something we expect from new buildings, places and settlements. We need to deliver beauty for everyone, not just the wealthy. This will require, ultimately, some fundamental changes. Hopefully our report will start part of that important debate with the public and the professions. These are draft proposals at this stage, and we would welcome further feedback before we put a final report to the government in the coming months.”