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Supermarket-leddevelopment: asset or liability?

Published in 2010 by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment

Graphic design: Duffy

Printed by Seacourt Ltd on Revive recycledpaper, using the waterless offset process.Seacourt Ltd holds EMAS and ISO14001environmental accreditations.

Cover photo: Vizion, a Sainsbury’s andBarratt’s development in Milton Keynes © Morley von Sternberg.

Although every care has been taken inpreparing this report, no responsibility or liability will be accepted by CABE, its employees, agents or advisors for its accuracy or completeness.

All rights reserved. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, copied or transmitted without the prior written consent of the publisher exceptthat the material may be photocopied for non-commercial purposes without permission from the publisher.

This publication is available inalternative formats on request from the publisher.

Introduction 2

Supermarket-led development: asset or liability? 4

The reliance on standard solutions 5

Principles of good supermarket-led design 7

1 Relating the building to its neighbourhood 8

2 Achieving strong environmental credentials 9

3 Getting the housing right 10

4 Creating good public realm and reducing car dependency 11

5 Planning for the long term 12

Strengthening the role of local planning authorities 13

What should happen next? 15

Contents

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Supermarkets are often involved in creating largeparts of our towns and cities. Fewer stores are built to stand alone: often they come with a mix of housing, sports facilities, shopping streets or schools.

For all their commercial success, supermarketshave to deal with powerful neighbourhoodopposition. There have been hundreds of localcampaigns in the UK against applications to openthem, often related to their environmental andpurchasing practices. Research has shown that 50 per cent of people think the size and strength of supermarkets should be controlled to stop themputting local independent retailers out of business1.

Also of great public interest, but much moreoverlooked, is the issue of design andplacemaking.

Conventionally, CABE’s role has been to advise on design, leaving economic evaluation to the local authority. But with supermarket regenerationprojects becoming more complex, we haveobserved that it is increasingly difficult to separatedesign and placemaking from economic impact.What local communities tell us is that a lot of supermarket-led development amounts to

a large plain rectangular building and car park in the middle of town. This can actually undermineregeneration, local character and sense of place, and compound traffic problems.

For this report, CABE has drawn on 30 of the major supermarket schemes which we have reviewed. Two thirds are mixed use and most are proposed for significant sites. Given that the sector is buoyant, and these developersare so well resourced, every scheme shouldreasonably be expected to make a positivecontribution to the locality and to the widerprosperity of the town centre. So we look at how local planning authorities could work with developers to create schemes which are commercially viable and enhance the place in which they are built.

There are examples of good design to draw on, such as the Grand Union Walk housing for Sainsbury’s, and the Tesco store in Ludlowwhere the roof profile successfully echoes the contours of the hills which form the town’s backdrop.

Some more recent schemes also show adetermination to create an attractive place.

Introduction

Grimshaw’s GrandUnion Walk housingscheme for Sainsbury’sin Camden wascompleted in 1988 and it is still a desirable place to live.Residential units takethe form of individualhouses, capitalising onthe canalside setting.The south facing wallto the rear needed tobe blank to excludelorry noise, so theirliving space at firstfloor level is top lit. A double-height dining area opens out onto a balcony

© Nick H

ornig

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At Fulham Wharf in London, a Sainsbury’sdevelopment proposes active frontages at streetlevel and new public routes and spaces withgenerous landscaping. This kind of pedestrian-friendly scheme proves that there is no need tochoose between commercial success and goodquality places. Everyone wants both.

But it has to be said that in most of the schemesCABE sees, it is clear that the basic model for asupermarket on an out-of-town brownfield site hassimply been transported to a town centre setting.This is not an oversight. The standard supermarketshell is the product of the intensive refinement of a tried and tested commercial model. The retailersand their developers tell us that this model stillserves them very well in a highly competitivecommercial world.

This creates a number of problems. Out-of-townsites are usually very straightforward to develop,but urban centre sites almost never are. There isalso a far greater complexity to supermarket-leddevelopment itself now that it locks togetherbuilding uses with very different cycles of renewal.The life of housing, for instance, is not the same as the life of retail space and the potential foradapting the latter in ways that could support

the former needs to be designed in from the outset. And grocery shopping patterns arechanging. The number of us shopping online, for instance, is predicted to double to 25 per centby 20142, and this could have radical implicationsfor the building. All these suggest the need forgreater flexibility in design to meet future businessand community needs.

At a recent CABE design review, it was suggested that supermarkets could be likened tocruise liners. Both are massive and self contained:they aim to meet all customer needs in one place.So supermarkets increasingly come with thebutcher, the baker, the chemist and the computerstore, as well as accommodation. But while acruise liner vanishes over the horizon, the future for a supermarket berthing in a town centre isbound up with the viability and vitality of that place.CABE believes that it is time for them to let downthe gang plank, and think more about their impacton the place where they arrive.

The geographical distribution of three major supermarkets as shown here in effect creates the shape of the UK – Tesco (red), Asda (green), andSainsbury’s (orange)

‘There is no need to choosebetween commercial successand good quality places.Everyone wants both’

© Nick H

ornig

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Supermarket-led development:asset or liability?

Done well, supermarket-led development providesthe critical mass to make a place thrive. Thesequential test and current planning policystatement 4 (PPS4) encourages such developmentin town centres precisely in order to promotesustainable economic growth. Supermarket-leddevelopment can restore life to a centre which has suffered from out-of-town or edge of towndevelopment, or just become very dated. In manymid-sized towns, the centre is blighted by a tiredmall built two or three decades ago and treated by its owner as a pension rather than something to manage and maintain.

In these circumstances, a well integrated scheme,designed in response to community need and the local context, can inject economic vitality andreinforce the primary shopping area with a lively mix of commercial and other non-retail uses. Healthcentres, libraries, sports facilities and gyms can bearranged along streets and around public spaces,along with cafés and bars. Many local authoritieshave invested heavily in enhancing their towncentres by improving pedestrian routes andstreetscapes, and a good scheme will createattractive new open space and destinations to

support this. New homes can contribute to socialvitality: apartments overlooking public space createnatural surveillance, and their entrances on streetsor squares generates 24-hour activity that makesthe locality feel safer for everyone.

However, in practice, CABE finds that manyschemes are not designed well enough to deliverthese benefits. Supermarkets – and the developerswith which they work – keep repeating the modeldesigned for out-of-town sites, with rectangularbuildings, large car parks and constant delivery. Inour discussions with them, it is clear that variationis seen as the enemy of economy. This leads to bigstandard blocks being built in small, irregularlyshaped sites, and design which bears norelationship to the neighbourhood.

The problems are often compounded by planningauthorities seeking to maximise associateddevelopment. Supermarkets will deliver mixed-useschemes if they have to, but their priority will remainthe delivery of an obvious and familiar workableretail solution. So the store building and parking is likely to be given prime position, whatever theelements in the rest of the development.

Vizion in MiltonKeynes is asuccessful exampleof a mixed-usedevelopment. Led by Sainsbury’s, itincludes housing,community and not-for-profit facilities,commercial spaceand offices, with awell landscapedgarden for residentson the roof top of the 10,000 sq metre store

© Q

uartet Design; Frosts Landscape C

onstruction Ltd

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The reliance on standard solutions

Here we describe some of the supermarket-ledschemes seen by CABE which illustrate reliance on standard solutions, and over development. Thiskind of weak design will result in a scheme which is likely to be a local liability rather than an asset,adversely affecting how a place looks and feels and whether it will thrive long term.

A rigid store format and standard car parkingapproach was proposed by Tesco for an importantand sensitive site in Halesworth, Suffolk. Inside theconservation area, its service yard and overflow carpark detracted from the setting of adjacent listedbuildings. The scheme undermined existing goodconnections into the town centre, positioning theblank rear of the store on a popular pedestrianroute. No effort was made to create spaces orlandscape in a way which would strengthen thesense of place.

A Tesco scheme proposed for the high street inEpsom, Surrey, tried to cram so much developmentonto the site, it inflated the building to five storeysin a neighbourhood of two storey terraced housing(see picture below).

A significant scheme in Bromley-by-Bow in eastLondon which has received planning consentillustrates the impact of site layout givingprecedence to the store. This new district centreincludes 293 new homes, a primary school, a hoteland a new public park. While the monolithic Tescostore will enjoy a waterside frontage, the residentialtower overlooks the northern approach to the A12Blackwall Tunnel. The new primary school in thescheme is tacked onto the store’s delivery yard,reached across the entrance to a busy car park.

Another scheme for Tesco, in St Helens,Lancashire, brought the opportunity to build a new stadium for the rugby league club. However,instead of placing this building in a prominentposition, reflecting its value to the city, thedeveloper awarded prime position to the superstoreand its car park, and hid the stadium around theback. The scheme was granted planning consentdespite its very serious shortcomings.

The quality of a scheme is of particular concern tomany residents of new homes built within it. Someschemes propose up to 900 dwellings. Many of theapartments in the schemes which CABE sees will

This development for Tesco on the high street in Epsom proposed threelevels of parking for 500 cars. Design approaches such as wrapping thestore frontage with a thin layer of housing units, and introducing smallershops at street level, were proposed. But at five storeys, the building hadbecome too bulky for any such mitigation to work

‘All traffic on site bringsnoise, air pollution andsafety issues, but a car-focused scheme can makeresidents’ lives grim inother ways too’

© Sheppard R

obson

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be an unpleasant place to live. All the traffic whichsupermarkets generate on site brings noise, airpollution and safety issues, but a car-focusedscheme can make residents’ lives grim in otherways too. In an Asda scheme proposed for the East Barnet Gas Works in north London, forinstance, the apartments were accessed from thebasement car park and along frontages adjacent to store parking entrances.

Apartments are also routinely single aspect. In thatAsda scheme, for instance, at least 36 apartmentsfaced only north, or were set back within cornerswhich would restrict daylight.

So what was the response of the five planningauthorities to the schemes described above?

In Halesworth, the local authority had good, up to date land use policy for the site, proposingresidential and community use. It felt able to refusethe scheme as it did not fit with those aspirations.CABE’s design review panel supported theirposition, as it did in Epsom where the Council didnot have up to date town centre wide guidance butstill felt confident about refusal on design groundsand because of its impact on a conservation area.

In Bromley by Bow, Tesco argues that their schemeis an obliging response to the local planningauthority guidance, and this is correct – even downto the lamentable location of the residential tower.CABE felt that the guidance for such an important

new urban quarter, critical to local regeneration,could also have required far more from the newstreets and better connectivity with nearbyneighbourhoods.

In St Helens, CABE believes that had the localauthority shown more confidence and vision, theycould have reshaped the scheme into one for thetown to be proud of.

The primary concern of East Barnet Council was the impact the scheme would have on the highstreet, but the scale of the store and poor qualityliving environment were also reasons for refusal.The scheme had not been adequately justified inrelation to the sequential approach and adverseimpact on designated centres.

On page 13, we look more closely at the role of local planning authorities. But it is already clear from the examples above that where councils have the confidence to stand firm and use existing policy (national or local) to support their case, they can negotiate betteroutcomes for their communities.

It is in everyone’s interest to get a good schemefirst time round. If the scheme put forward meetsthe demands of the business, the economicexpectations of the council and the aspirations of planners for high quality places, this should be recognised in the planning process. Fasterplanning consent avoids costly delays.

This scheme inBromley-by-Bow, east London iscomplex superstore-led regenerationwhich is driven by theTesco-led investmentopportunity, eventhough planning anddesign guidanceunderpins the scheme.The site layout givesprecedence to thesupermarket, whichenjoys a river frontage.The residential towerwill be sited wherenoise, air quality andoutlook are at theirworst, beside thenorthern approach tothe A12 BlackwallTunnel

© C

ollado Collins

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Principles of good supermarket-led design

Underpinning every good supermarket-led scheme is a clear, locally informed brief. A good brief willspecify what the design must achieve and what it isdesirable to achieve, and reflect design principlesset out in national and local planning guidance. Mostdesign briefs for a supermarket scheme are writtenby the retailer long before any discussions withplanners take place, but will be informed by the localdevelopment framework. So it is essential that thecore strategy and associated documents, such asarea action plans, clearly communicate whatplanners expect to see in terms of design quality.

CABE has supported around 100 local planningauthorities in creating their core strategies. There is immense value in having a clear vision for a town centre, with the facilities, services and retailrequirements identified and the relevant strategiesfor town-centre parking or sustainable transport fully reflected.

The mix of uses depends on location and whatwould work well together over the long term. The best mix for the site should emerge fromcollaboration with the communities that use the area and take full account of the needs of minorityethnic groups, older people and disabled people.

Fulham Wharf, adevelopment proposalled by Sainsbury’sand designed byLifschutz DavidsonSandilands. The box of the store isconcealed behindhomes and smallerunits. Front doors for residents areprovided off a livelystreet, and sharedsurfaces favourpedestrians. It willcreate attractive new open spaces to play and meet, with generouslandscaping,including a newpublic route to the river

Overleaf we look at the following five issuesthat can help to inform discussions betweenlocal planning authorities and developers.

1 Relating the building to its neighbourhood

2 Achieving strong environmental credentials

3 Getting the housing right

4 Creating good public realm and reducing car dependency

5 Planning for the long term

© Lifschutz D

avidson Sandilands

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1 Relating the building to its neighbourhood

The scale of the supermarketbuilding is determined by manyfactors, including the size of thenearest competing store andpredicted trading intensity, but it should above all relate to thesite. Sites created by landassembly can be irregular and the large rectangular floor-plan of a typical supermarket will notalways be a comfortable fit.However, PPS4 currently requiressupermarket development to enhance the establishedcharacter and diversity of thetown, and recommends that localauthorities ensure that operatorsdemonstrate flexibility in terms of floor space and siteconfiguration and car parking.

Planners can ask developers to undertake context appraisalsand to produce schemes thatshow how the store links into its surrounding neighbourhood.Supermarket designs that do notrespond to their site are unlikelyto comply with the local corestrategy and so should not begranted planning permission.

The brief needs to indicate whatsort of street presence the formand massing of the buildingsshould create. Site masterplanningis usually generated by a retailerand developer working to atemplate. The interior layoutneeds to provide clear directionfor the customer – this limitsqueues which in turn minimisesthe car parking required – and arectangular plan form works wellfor this, but access, storage andservicing usually means blankfacades on three sides. This canaffect the quality of borderingstreets, making them dead andunwelcoming. It is a constraintthat can prompt somewhatarbitrary design responses,

such as the addition of woodencladding to all elevations. ButCABE has also seen exteriorswhich respond to their contextmore successfully, such as theSainsbury’s in Sherborne,Waitrose in Ely and the Tescostore in Ludlow (see picturebelow). Screening the store withresidential and commercial unitscan provide balance, as canmoving subsidiary elements out of the box: so for example the deli counter or the pharmacycould operate from a separateshop frontage.

The brief should demonstrate thethinking behind routes throughand within the site, and provideevidence that connectionsthrough the neighbourhood willbe maintained and enhanced.Positioning large structures that block desire lines shouldobviously be avoided. For mostschemes, creating a pedestrianlink to the rest of the town centreis of significant commercial value:according to industry experts,outside London 20 per cent

of the trade (and more of thevisits) will walk in from the town. So planners seeking welldesigned and attractive links totown centres should be pushing at an open door.

The scheme should make a place feel safer as a result of the natural surveillance from well frequented streets, day andnight. Street safety is a particularissue for people who already feel vulnerable through age ordisability, and the Equalities Act2010 requires local authorities to ensure that no developmenthas an adverse impact.

In major cities, the compacthypermarkets on brownfield sitesclose to big roads tend to focussolely on the car, with multi-levelcar parking, in order to attractaffluent customers from a widerregion. But they are often built inthe middle of communities thatare far from affluent, and need todemonstrate that the interests ofthose people have also beentaken into account.

© Jam

es O. D

avies/English H

eritage/N.M

.R.

This Tesco store in Ludlow, Shropshire was designed by MJP Architects and completed in 2000. It responds well to the town in terms of scale and the materials used. The building's most prominentfeature is its 55m curved roof which echoes the undulating hills which frame the town. The building is also unusual in being substantially naturally lit, which creates a more attractive internal environmentas well as helping to reduce energy use and carbon emissions

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Local planning authorities are in a strong position to showleadership in securing the higheststandards of energy efficiencyand environmental responsibilityfrom a scheme’s developers.

Currently planning policystatement I (PPS1) requires local authorities to ensure thatstrategies address climatechange through policies whichreduce energy use, reduceemissions from travel and freight,promote renewable energy, andtake climate change impacts intoaccount in the location anddesign of development.

The major supermarkets takeenergy efficiency very seriously,given the enormous energydemand from their heating/cooling outputs, but still CABEsees schemes with features suchas large south-facing glazedareas with no shading devices to mitigate the significant heat loads.

The standard template for thebuilding limits opportunities to use natural daylight andventilation, but rooflights are often possible, even through roof gardens or rooftop car parks.

We have observed that there canbe advantages in setting firmcommitments to BREEAM andCode for Sustainable Homestargets through the planningprocess. Applications can setbenchmarks for sustainability,including estimates of carbonemissions as kg CO2/m2.Thelarger supermarkets are subjectto the CRC Energy Efficiencyscheme which requires that theymonitor and then reduce theirenergy use. When supermarketsare building new schemes, it

makes sense to take advantageof passive design to reduce the need for energy use in the first place.

Comprehensive redevelopment of a site creates the opportunityto put in place infrastructure such as combined heat andpower. This can be even morevaluable if it becomes a catalystfor a town centre-wide network,for instance exporting waste heatfrom the retail units to nearbysheltered accommodation.

Even though Sainsbury’s newmegastore in Crayford hasdoubled in size, by introducing a geothermal system as part ofthe refurbishment it has cutenergy usage by 30% and helpedto reduce its electricity bill by60%. The technology has beenused before at Sainsbury’s inGreenwich but here is the firsttime that it also extracts excessheat generated by the motors inthe store’s fridges, and capturesit for re-use.

Supermarkets can also respondto climate change by taking aholistic approach to their use of natural resources. This willrange from the longevity of thematerials used in building, andtheir potential for re-use, to themanagement and conservation of water. Rainwater can becollected, for instance for use in non-food areas.

With flash flooding becomingmore frequent in urban areas, it isworth designing open space withporous surfaces, rather than theusual hard paving and tarmac, toslow the flow of rainwater to thedrains. Generous planting in thespaces around the building willalso increase absorption.

For detailed advice on how to create sustainable urbanenvironments at the differentscales of building, site andneighbourhood, visitwww.cabe.org.uk/sustainability.

2 Achieving strong environmental credentials

Designed by ATP and completed in 2006, the Maximarkt supermarket in Wels, Austria,benefits from full height windows which flood the sales hall with natural light

‘Planning authoritiesare in a strong positionto show leadership insecuring the highestenvironmentalstandards from thescheme’s developers’

© Alexander K

oller

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3 Getting the housing right

One of the most serious issuesfor mixed-use supermarket-leddevelopment is the quality of thehousing, as outlined above onpages 5-6. Mix and type of tenureneeds careful consideration whendeciding whether the site really is suitable for housing.

Building homes is a significantlong term commitment to thelocal community, and goodhousing can add immeasurably to the overall quality of thedevelopment. Yet economicpressure often significantlyaffects the quality of design. Thehousing component of a schemeis not generally a significantsource of value for the developer.We have been told it is oftenincluded on the guidance of localplanning officers as a way tomeet targets for social housing ina world where the council cannotdirectly invest to build it. Privateresidential housing then needs tobe included to help defray thecost of these low-cost units.

There are several key things to consider when ensuring that supermarket-led housingdevelopment will provide adecent quality environment forresidents. These include clearand safe access routes home,and a real ‘address’ – a proudand visible front door to theapartments from the street. There needs to be cleardifferentiation between routes for the shopping public and the residents’ private world.Circulation within the buildingshould be straightforward, so that residents do not have tonegotiate a succession of longinternal corridors to reach theirapartments.

CABE has seen a number of schemes where balconiesoverlook the delivery yard or aparking podium. It is possible to use the podium to createattractive, secluded gardens and amenity space for residents, free of service ducts and plant.

Residents insupermarket-ledhousing developments are entitled to enjoy a high qualityenvironment, startingwith a proud frontdoor off the street(picture on far left).The gate shown nearleft, by contrast, failsto say ‘welcome home’

‘Building homes is asignificant long termcommitment to the local community, yeteconomic pressure often significantly affectsthe quality of design’

© Nick H

ornig

Open space in supermarket-ledschemes generally amounts to alarge expanse of tarmac dottedwith the occasional tree. This isbecause the purpose of openspace is often defined sonarrowly – for parking cars andfor servicing buildings across the site.

A more productive approach, for both developer and localauthority, starts from viewing thesite as urban space, just like thepublic realm across the rest oftown, and thinking about howthat status can be reflected in its design quality and in the materials used for itslandscaping. This leads to the public space on the sitebecoming people oriented andsupportive of neighbourhoodactivity, for instance by hosting a local market.

The current supermarket modelentails a constant flow of heavydelivery vehicles and cars, andcreating a good safe environmentin that situation starts from thepremise that pedestrians have

priority over drivers. It is possibleto reduce the visual impact of car parking through enclosing it within a block: an expansivestreet level plot creates a gapwhich magnifies its impact.

A good masterplan will generatea series of logical routes andgenerous, broad links that peoplewould want to use, day and night.Strong landscaping helps todefine character and sense ofplace. Public routes, semi-privatespaces and private spaces canbe demarcated through levelchanges and gated access.

Reducing car dependencyThe car is fundamental to thefood retailer’s current businessmodel. Consumer habits such as the fast bulk shop are hard to change. Planning authoritiesare nonetheless obliged toencourage patterns ofdevelopment which reduce the need to travel by car, anddevelopers have a significantresponsibility when choosing site location: it should be where‘everyone can access services

or facilities on foot, bicycle or public transport rather thanhaving to rely on access by car.’3

PPS4 recommends a strategicapproach to parking provision:car parks can be designed toserve the centre as well as thestore, for instance by providingaccess from streets around the site.

Developers can also take aproactive approach to reducingreliance on cars without harmingthe business model. Credibletransport alternatives, such ascourtesy bus schemes, can beoffered, and discounts for peopleusing public transport or taxis. At some Waitrose stores, cyclistscan hire shopping baskets onwheels. Other incentive schemesencourage off peak shopping tominimise the parking needed. The expansion of home deliveryservices reduces the number ofcar dependent shopping trips.

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4 Creating good public realm and reducing car dependency

Highams Park, a major Tescodevelopment in northLondon, proposes260 homes around a park which is at theheart of the scheme,providing attractiveviews for residents

© C

ollado Collins

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All local economies are subject tochange and PPS1 stresses theimportance of drawing up plansover appropriate time scales, andnot focusing on the short term orignoring longer term impacts orthe needs of communities in the future.

The fees for architects engagedon supermarket projects are tootight to allow time for progressivethinking. Where schemes are ledby developers, many run designcompetitions, but when it comesto food store shells, CABE doesnot see design teams regularlycommissioned throughcompetition. This can stiflecreative thinking and leave theprevailing model of supermarketdesign unchallenged, making anyreal change for the better moredifficult to achieve. By offeringdesign teams space to thinkcreatively, a well-managed design competition can open up a range of surprising andvaluable possibilities, producingsolutions that create better

spaces and better supportcommercial viability.

Shopping patterns are changing:industry analysts, IGD, report that 13 per cent of peopleshopped online for groceries in 2009 and this figure isexpected to double by 2014. So supermarket buildings mayneed to be designed in a waywhich allows them to be adaptedfor new uses. Structural flexibilitycould include floor-to-floorheights suitable for futureconversion to office use, andbuilding in the possibility forlateral subdivision.

The inclusion of housing in mixed-use schemes makes it particularlyimportant to design for change.Out of town, it is feasible to buildon the premise that sheds canchange use or be dismantled, butit is a different matter to unstitchcomplicated building forms with a range of uses and different lifecycles on suburban or inner city sites.

5 Planning for the long term

A 22,000 sq ft store for Preston-basedsupermarket group Booths, which has beendesigned to integrate sympathetically into thehistoric town of Garstang, Lancashire. Thedevelopment includes a new public square.Architects: Damson Design

‘Out-of-town retail shedscan change use or bedismantled but it is adifferent matter tounstitch building formswith different life cycles’

© David M

illington Photography Ltd

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Strengthening the role of local planning authorities

The quality of supermarket design reflects thecapacity of local government to create great places(socially, economically and environmentally), andmake decisions which balance all three.

Land in town centres is a scare commodity but,curiously, there is still a constant threat of radicalunderdevelopment. So beyond the immediateeconomic dividend, there is scope to ensure everydevelopment improves the local environment andcreates a more successful place – provided thescheme is well designed, with a good mix of useand form, integrated into its surroundings andstraightforward to reach from all directions.

Current planning policy already puts planners in astrong position to secure retail developments thatrespond to the local environment as well meet thedemands of business. It helps local authorities toresist arguments that in tough economic times they must lower their expectations and approvemasterplans and large projects which they mightregret five years on when the plans come tofruition. It provides the basis for negotiation withdevelopers: every local authority is working toreduce carbon emissions, for instance, andplanning policy requires patterns of developmentwhich support this.

The right support for planning officers

In CABE’s experience, planning officers have a critical role in articulating how high standards can be achieved. Pre-application discussions inparticular present an important opportunity for the planning officer and the developer to betterunderstand each other’s objectives. Through them,they can ensure there is clarity about the localplanning framework and the unique identity of theplace expressed within it, which needs to bereflected in the emerging proposals. The officerwho can draw on experience of how commercialoperational efficiency drives decisions can marshalla good case for key aspects of community interest,as environmental responsibility and high qualitypublic spaces. In other words, pre applicationdiscussions present an invaluable opportunity toalign interests. The problems occur when they arecursory and uninformative, and sometimes it canhelp if officers have been given training innegotiation skills.

Success is of course predicated on the localauthority having already defined what it wants from the site. The masterplan needs to be based on a clear idea of the character and function of theplace that will be created. It will set up a frameworkfor a hierarchy of uses as well as hierarchy ofstreets and spaces. It should also provide a soundbasis for development and change. For many sitesit is the supermarket which drives the value, and in the absence of strategic vision from the localauthority, the interests of the retailer will naturallydrive the masterplan.

Finally, planning officers need to have design skillsin order to be confident that the proposal supportslocal expectations for the development. Thesemight include safer, more inviting pedestrianroutes, with traffic movement minimised; andbuilding at a scale and in a way which enhanceslocal character. ‘Planning policy already helps

local authorities to resistarguments that in tougheconomic times they mustlower their expectations’

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The changes ahead for planners

In the future, planners will have even moreresponsibility for sustainable economicdevelopment. PPS1 already emphasises theimportance of good design, local distinctivenessand sustainable development. It also emphasisesthe need to think about how the local economymight change. This is particularly pertinent formixed-use development because of its complexityand different ownership structures. Its long termvalue needs to be protected, for the developer and the community.

Changes to the planning system will also nowenable communities to take the lead in shapingtheir surroundings, with local projects designedthrough a collaborative process. The community’sattitude to new development and change will

determine the vision in the new neighbourhood plans. There will need to be better communityunderstanding of aspects of planning such as landuses, standards for architecture and design, andsustainable development. So planning officers willbe required to provide a greater depth of supportand provide enough data to help local people make well informed decisions.

Neighbourhood planning means that local people will have the right to take a far greater role in the development of their community. Whilemany communities welcome the addition of a new supermarket in the town centre, others willdoubtless lodge significant objections. Localpeople are often more willing to support a newscheme if it is well designed and integrated and will improve the quality of the place.

Delivery bays dominate at Tesco Hammersmith at Brook Green in west London, positioned directly underneath the residential units

© Haarala H

amilton

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What should happen next?

We know that supermarket-led development canbring real benefits to towns and neighbourhoods.Over the coming years, these businesses will beincreasingly important players in job creation andphysical renewal. Our experience suggests thatwhere things go right, supermarket-ledregeneration can be a real asset. But the benefitsof this asset are not yet always fully realised.

Perhaps the most common reason for permittingweak schemes is prioritising the short term value of the developer’s investment over its long termimpact on quality of place. Sometimes councilswith weak local economies are wary of refusingpermission, which can be a source of conflict withofficers who want to maximise the potential of thescheme to create somewhere that is well designed.

Finding a constructive route through themisunderstandings and competing priorities would go a long way to securing better outcomesfor everyone: meeting the need for economicdevelopment for the local area, for the commercialviability of the store, and for sustainable placemaking.

Each of these should reinforce the other – thethread running between them is the goal of creatingvibrant and viable town centres. So there are many shared interests between councils andsupermarkets, and many of the seeminglyintractable tensions could be resolved by applyingdesign solutions. But where the differences arereal, clarity about the trade-offs would help decision makers on both sides to achieve more of their goals.

Getting the design right won’t make all theproblems associated with supermarket-leddevelopment go away, but it would stack the odds more firmly in favour of such developmentbecoming a genuine asset, rather than a potential liability.

‘Getting the design right stacks the odds in favour of developmentbecoming an asset,rather than a liability’

Notes1 NEF survey, May 20032 Online shopping 2009 report by the Institute of GroceryDistribution3 PPS1: Delivering sustainable development, page 11

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Vizion, Milton Keynes© Morley von Sternberg

c1

Supermarkets now often create largeparts of our towns, leading mixed usedevelopments which come with housing,public space and other non-retail uses.These can bring valuable jobs andinvestment. But if they are badlydesigned, the development willundermine regeneration and any sense of place.

This report is based on design reviews by CABE of 30 major schemesfrom around the country by retailersincluding Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s. It offers practical advice to planners and councillors on how to work withsupermarkets to ensure that schemesare both commercially viable andenhance the place in which they are built.