Yesterday, Redwood attended a roundtable hosted by the British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC) and The Enterprise Forum with the Minister for Government Policy, Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP. The aim of the event, held at Hammerson’s offices, was to listen to Mr Letwin discuss policy development in the run up to the general election. The roundtable gave attendees an insight into which policy areas the key manifesto commitments are likely to focus on and where retail and retail property interests sit in Government’s long list of priorities.

The importance of the retail property sector was acknowledged by the Minister, who discussed the imperfections of the current NPPF along with various other policy issues that have been a priority for the coalition. Mr Letwin went on to discuss how Local Authority powers are improving, helping to create innovative local planning policy.

Sitting on the panel with the Minister was David Atkins, Chief Executive of Hammerson, who raised the problems of indirect taxes and the changing retail landscape.