Drew, David

That this House welcomes the Barker Review of Land Use Planning; looks forward to an effective debate on the means to ensure that investment in communities is at the heart of planning policy; expresses concern at proposals that remove decision-making power from local people at a time when competition and choice in retail is concentrating into the control of a handful of large companies, and small independent alternatives are decreasing; rejects recommendations that undermine town centre first planning policy for new commercial development; further rejects proposals to remove the needs test for new commercial development; and calls on the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to defend the need test as a vital tool allowing local communities to decide for themselves what development is right for them and which is not.