Need test must stay, says group
The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has launched an intensive campaign against recommendations made in the Barker Review.

The ACS will lobby more than 200 MPs about the removal of the need test for new commercial developments, such as supermarkets, which it believes will only further increase the dominance of the big four grocers.

ACS chief executive James Lowman said: 'We have taken our concerns to MPs and we are asking them to support our campaign to maintain the need test.

'We believe they will agree with us that it should be local authorities and local people that decide whether an area needs a supermarket, rather than the supermarket developers themselves.'

Bank of England policymaker Kate Barker made a number of planning recommendations in a report commissioned by the Treasury and Department for Communities and Local Government. They included abolishing the need test - which requires applicants for retail development to demonstrate there is an economic need for that development - and removing planning approval as a requirement, even for minor alterations to commercial premises.