Retail competition and planning

In recent years much criticism has been levelled against planning authorities for their apparent prejudice against large‐scale developments and their reluctance to take into account factors other than a narrow approach to land use. In this special feature Sheila Cassells argues that planning control should have regard to the welfare effects of retail competition, should consider the likely changes in respect of prices and the implications of these changes for low income families in urban and rural deprived areas, and should pay particular attention to the “uneven” effects of a hypermarket or superstore on the existing pattern of local trade. Most of the research for this article was done when the author was a postgraduate student in Town Planning at University College London.