Oxfordshire: Threat to local shops now a reality, warns Meeson Williams Phillips

Owners of small shops can now convert them into housing without the need for planning permission, potentially sounding the death knell for community shops and local high streets, warns an Oxfordshire commercial property and town planning consultancy.

Meeson Williams Phillips, which is based in Kidlington and Milton Park, is warning that new rules aimed at freeing up the planning system may have a significant, negative impact on independent shops.

“The High Street is fundamental to economic growth by encouraging retail spending and also the social wellbeing of local communities – and yet this planning relaxation presents a new threat to its viability,” said David Williams, a director at Meeson Williams Phillips. “Working for national retailers we see high streets across the country and the successful ones have a rich variety of shops, both multiple and independent, making an appealing destination with places to pass time and meet friends, encouraging retail spend. They are places where people do not just make premeditated purchases which can be done more conveniently over the internet.

“The high street is fundamentally a market place where location is key. If there is a break in the continuation of the retail frontage, then it will change where people walk and therefore could kill whole sections of the street.”

Research to be published by Meeson Williams Phillips in July, will show that the available retail floor space has increased in six Oxfordshire towns between March and June this year.

“Retailers are now being put under pressure by rental uplift on reviews, and clients have received rent review proposals which we are carefully assessing,” said Mr Williams. “Business rates can often be disproportionately high due to the periodic re-assessment.

“The planning authority can have regard to the effect of a change of use i.e. the loss of a shop, on the sustainability of a shopping area. As always, the devil is in the detail but we hope that there can be a holistic approach to the retail area taking pedestrian movement into account. The same impact results from changes to public car parking, pedestrian crossings or new shopping centres.”

Under the new rules, owners of small shops or units providing financial and professional services under 150 square metres in size can change their use to residential or a bank or building society, without the need for planning permission.