Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to place restrictions on the expansion of out of town shopping centres to protect high streets.

The revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) reaffirms our commitment to the town centre first approach, which has been in place for two decades, by stating that main town centre uses should, where possible, be located in town centres.

The Framework is also clear that if an application fails to satisfy the sequential test, or if an application for retail and leisure development outside of a town centre has an adverse impact on existing centres, it should be refused.