The British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC) has welcomed the findings of a Government report, which it says will help speed up the planning process in retail.

The Killian Pretty Review, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government, identifies five key areas of concern over the present system.

It states the process is over-complicated and lengthy, allocates resources disproportionately to the size of a project, does not allow proper synergy between stakeholders and is problematic in the pre-application stage.

Dr Brian Raggett, a member of the BCSC advisory board and chair of the council’s Government Affairs Committee, said: “It all looks likely that the Government is going to take this on board and quite rapidly.”

However, Raggett added that he was frustrated that such reforms hadn’t been suggested sooner, as they could have benefited the numerous developments that opened this year. “It would have been fantastic if this had happened five years ago,” he said.

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