Committee publication · Correspondence · 4 November 2025
Letter from the District Councils' Network relating to the Committee's inquiry on Small Business Strategy, 1 October 2025
From: Business and Trade Committee
Inquiry: Small business strategy
Summary
Jon McGinty, representing the District Councils' Network and Gloucester City Council, outlines district councils' role in high street regeneration. He describes Gloucester's initiatives—including refurbished shopping centres and repurposed retail units—and raises key barriers: funding constraints, brownfield remediation, absentee landowners, and misuse of Permitted Development Rights. DCN calls for Planning and Infrastructure Bill reforms to streamline compulsory purchase powers and create dedicated town centre regeneration provisions.
Key findings
- District councils use planning powers, regulatory authority, and direct funding to rejuvenate high streets; successful examples include Gloucester's shopping centre refurbishments and conversion of a former Debenhams into a University of Gloucester campus.
- High street decline driven partly by shift from retail: councils repositioning centres as mixed-use destinations with leisure, culture, and community spaces to increase footfall.
- Permitted Development Rights enabling unchecked residential conversion of commercial units often produce poor-quality housing with inadequate space standards and daylight, harming communities and town centres.
- Compulsory purchase order processes are cumbersome, expensive, and ill-suited to small-scale town centre regeneration projects.
- Key barriers include: limited access to funding, brownfield remediation costs, absentee out-of-town and international property owners, and lack of local accountability mechanisms.
Tone
FactualTopics
Key actors
Jon McGinty, District Councils' Network, Gloucester City Council, Liam Byrne MP, Business and Trade Committee, Reef Group, Arts Council England, University of Gloucester
Notable line
“Permitted Development Rights can lead to the worst quality housing, with poor daylight and inadequate space standards, resulting in significant issues for the community and detriment to residents.”
Key Quotes
“District councils play a proactive role in helping to reimagine, rejuvenate and regenerate our high streets not only through our formal suite of planning, licensing and regulatory powers but also by providing direct funding and working in partnership with private and community sector partners …”
“As place shapers in our cities and towns, we are trying to find alternative reasons for people to come into our city centres and high streets beyond retail.”
“Permitted Development Rights can lead to the worst quality housing, with poor daylight and inadequate space standards, resulting in significant issues for the community and detriment to residents.”
“Compulsory purchase powers are an essential tool for local authorities acquiring and assembling land as part of high street regeneration.”
“… there is an issue with out-of-town or international investors leaving buildings vacant, making it challenging for the local authority to engage with the owners to ensure the building or land is put to best use/brought back into use …”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗