Report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development)

This report considers underserved communities in three categories: communities that surround an existing district centre which is underperforming, communities without reasonable access to a district or local neighbourhood centre and emerging communities without reasonable access to shops and other community facilities or to a designated district centre.  It summarises key findings to date including the latest trend in the District Centre Survey: Planning Use Classes and describes the on-going centre audit which has evolved from the Institute of Place Management (IPM) district centre Vital and Viable pilots.

The Subgroup received a report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) which considered underserved communities.

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report which included:

• Communities that surrounded an existing district centre which was underperforming;
• Communities without reasonable access to a district or local neighbourhood centre;
• Emerging communities without reasonable access to shops and other community facilities or to a designated district centre;
• Key findings to date including the latest trend in the District Centre Survey: Planning Use Classes; and
• The on-going centre audit which had evolved from the IPM’s Vital and Viable pilots.

In response to a Member’s question about decisions on new housing development in relation to their distance from district centres, the Planning and Infrastructure Manager advised Members that the location of new housing developments was partly determined by the availability of housing sites.  He outlined the considerations for areas where there was expected to be an increase in housing development and how new residents could be encouraged to use the facilities in their local area.  The Head of Local Planning and Infrastructure and City Policy reported that district centres tended to have better transport links so this was another argument for having higher density housing around district centres.

In response to a Member’s question on what the Council could do to fill vacant business units, the Head of Local Planning and Infrastructure and City Policy advised that there could be some opportunities to use business rates relief to address this and that he would look into this.

Dr Steve Millington reported that, while vacancy rates were used as a Key Performance Indicators for district centres, their usefulness as an indicator of centre performance was affected by “sticky leases”, where businesses had ceased trading but continued to pay rent to the landlord.  Furthermore, he advised, if there were no vacant units in a district centre for different types of businesses to move into, this restricted the district centre’s ability to change.

Members discussed where people who lived in areas which did not have a local district centre currently went for shopping and leisure activities.  The Chair commented that creating a local district centre could impact negatively on other areas which would lose their business.  Dr Steve Millington advised that sometimes the solution could be cheaper public transport to district centres.  The Head of Local Planning and Infrastructure and City Policy agreed that public transport was important.

The Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration informed Members that the information in the report was a starting point and that further work needed to be done.  She advised that this information could then be used to inform Council decisions on where capital investment was most needed and would have most impact.  She reported that more work needed to be done on ensuring that people in all areas of the city had access to fresh produce.  The Chair supported these comments.

The Chair advised that partnership working tended to be easier in more affluent areas but that these were not the areas most in need of investment.  She reported that future housing development was primarily in areas which were served by district centres but that some of these district centres needed to be enriched.  She commented on the impact of the improvements to Withington Library and advised that the Council should consider what other opportunities there were to enrich other district centres.  She advised that consideration should also be given as to how local neighbourhood centres could be augmented to improve the local services to people who did not live near to a district centre.

Decision

To note the report.