Retail location, competition and urban redevelopment

Adams, D. , Disberry, A., Hutchison, N. and Munjoma, T. (2002) Retail location, competition and urban redevelopment. Service Industries Journal, 22(3), pp. 135-148. (doi: 10.1080/714005090)

Abstract

After rapid growth in off-centre retailing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the UK Government is now determined to concentrate future retailing within urban areas and, wherever possible, close to existing town and city centres. By their very nature, however, major retail developments are extensive users of land. This makes suitable sites hard to acquire within cities, especially as large urban sites normally have to be assembled from several ownerships, while those of the periphery can often be purchased from a single owner. Within this context, this article examines how the availability of large redevelopment sites for future retailing within or close to the centres of four British cities was significantly constrained by multiple land ownership. It contends that, while tighter planning restrictions on retail development in off-centre locations may well be effective in thwarting development considered unacceptable in policy terms, such restrictions by themselves will not serve to re-direct retail development pressure to central areas, unless multiple land ownership can be readily resolved. Without such action, retail planning policy will increasingly frustrate retail competition and ultimately to become self-defeating.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Adams, Professor David
• Authors: Adams, D., Disberry, A., Hutchison, N., and Munjoma, T.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Service Industries Journal
• Publisher: Frank Cass
• ISSN: 0264-2069
• ISSN (Online): 1743-9507
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2002 Taylor and Francis
• First Published: First published in Service Industries Journal 22(3): 135-148
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy