Small Shops Commission

 The Conservative Party has released its interim findings from its Commission into Small Shops. The Small Shops Commission was launched last October with a brief to investigate why specialist and independent retailers are being driven out by multinational chain stores and to recommend ways to halt the decline.

The report has three key recommendations:

• promoting better town management through civic partnerships to make high-street vitality a bigger priority in planning decisions.
• encouraging joint plans between councils and businesses to tackle retail crime and neighbourhood decline.
• protection of the "need test" which the commission says is "essential for the survival of small retailers in town centres and high streets."

You can read the full report via this link