Policy E6
Town and local centre heirarchy
- The council will continue to work with the Mayor of London and other stakeholders including the Business Improvement Districts, to enhance the vitality and viability of the borough's shopping hierarchy of 3 Town Centres, 5 key Local Centres, 15 Neighbourhood Parades and 6 Satellite Parades (Appendix 1 ). The council will promote the ambitions of its Industrial Strategy -Upstream – to support the Town Centres and through placemaking to achieve a high-quality, well-designed public realm to attract businesses, residents, and visitors.
- The council will seek to meet identified retail, and leisure needs primarily within the 3 Town Centres, Opportunity Areas, and Regeneration Areas. The Local Centres, Neighbourhood and Satellite Parades, and other freestanding shops within walking distance from home will be protected where they meet day- to-day local needs for shops and services.
- To meet needs, support economic growth and to maintain town centre vitality and vibrancy the council will:
a) promote the regeneration of the Town Centres and support in principle intensification and diversification subject to impact on townscape and heritage. This can include higher density mixed-use residential development, student, and visitor accommodation on appropriate sites;
b) maintain the predominant retail function of primary shopping areas;
c) support the evening economy and cultural uses in the Town Centres and Creative Enterprise Zone;
e) seek provision of a range of retail unit sizes including small stores in redevelopment proposals that are accessible to residents, workers, and visitors;
f) support the conversion or redevelopment of unused or underused space above ground floor units for new residential accommodation where these would not affect the operation of the unit, and subject to the requirements of other relevant policies;
g) support temporary proposals for 'pop ups' and related 'meanwhile uses' of empty spaces within the town centre hierarchy where it can be demonstrated that they will enhance town centre vitality and viability and can be appropriately managed;
h) ensure that new developments for town centre uses are in scale and location to their position in the hierarchy;
i) require a retail impact assessment for out of centre retail proposals which are in excess of 300m2 (gross);
j) require a sequential test for out of centre retail development proposals in accordance with the NPPF threshold, including proposals for Class E (commercial, business and service) uses that would enable at least this amount of gross floorspace to be occupied by retail use;
k) safeguard local shops and other local services within local centres to meet local need;
l) protect local markets and clusters of specialist shopping; and support new markets throughout the Town Centres where any negative impacts on the surrounding area, including on existing businesses, can be mitigated;
m) negotiate planning obligations where appropriate, feasible and viable to mitigate the loss of, and/or secure or support, affordable retail space to encourage small or independent traders; and
n) promote the provision of shop mobility schemes.
- Where necessary and justified, the council will use conditions and/or planning obligations to limit uses consented within Classes E, F1 or F2 in order to achieve the objectives of this policy and to avoid the proliferation of main town centre uses outside of the Town Centres.
6.43 The Local Plan can support the council's wider ambitions for successful town centres set out in the Industrial Strategy -Upstream, as places where people want to live, work and contribute to our inclusive growth. The council wants to encourage the regeneration of Hammersmith and Fulham's town centres to improve their viability and vitality as well as sustain a network of supporting smaller centres .
Changing shopping habits
6.44 The growth of online shopping, banking and working from home, especially since the Covid pandemic will need to be reflected in new policies. A more diverse range of town centre uses can help our town centres remain vibrant attractive places to live work visit and shop Work is underway on a Retail and Leisure Needs Study which will provide further information to support this chapter and will identify the quantum of needs and justify the broad locations for protection within the Local Plan period, and looking 10 years ahead. The study will consider how far smaller centres meet essential day to day shopping needs withing walking distance from home. Some centres will require extra retail space and others will need to plan for a more static and in some cases possible decline in retail space. The study, alongside stakeholder engagement will help inform the final policy approach and degree of support for retaining the local shopping function of smaller centres, isolated parades and shops to ensure sustainable communities and reduce the need to travel longer distances particularly by car.
6.45 A key aim in relation to the town centre and local centre hierarchy is to ensure that we get the balance right between ensuring there is sufficient capacity for new retail floorspace and to protect existing supply without over-protecting premises which are surplus to requirements and would lie vacant. One of the ways we will seek to do this is to promote a more diverse range of appropriate town centre uses that can attract affordable expenditure and provide local employment opportunities. Updated local plan evidence has identified needs for both visitor accommodation and for student accommodation, which provide opportunities to grow and diversity our town centres, as well as increasing footfall which supports existing businesses. The Local Plan will support 'Upstream London' ambitions for a strong cultural offer and vibrant evening economy which brings people into the centres into the evening once shops and offices have closed, bringing economic benefits and creating new jobs. The borough's Town Centres have excellent public transport connections which means a more intensive form of development could be achieved without needing to provide for cars and car parks. Policy E1 provides the policy approach to maximising growth in high PTAL locations.
6.46 Active travel provision will be promoted, and the council is committed to improving the public realm so that town centres will be attractive and vibrant places to live, work,shop and visit. It is also important to ensure that we seek to maintain a range of supporting complementary facilities in towns, including arts, culture and entertainment. Recent changes in the use classes order, (a flexible use class E) and extended permitted development rights have made this more difficult to achieve through planning policies.
6.47 The Town Centres present opportunities for new housing, particularly thorough high density mixed use development, subject to other policies in the local plan being met, notably managing impact, and agent of change principles (see Policy E10). The emerging capacity evidence will provide updated information for identifying and exploiting opportunities for new housing.
Town Centre hierarchy
6.48 The council aims to meet future retail and related needs primarily within the established shopping hierarchy so as to maximise opportunities to obtain goods, services, jobs and leisure activities in places that are convenient to where people live and work. A number of development sites have been identified for future retail growth in the Town Centres, and the identified Regeneration and Opportunity Areas, particularly the White City Opportunity Area and the Earls Court and West Kensington Opportunity Area. The Hammersmith and Fulham Retail and Leisure Needs Study 2025 will provide updated area-specific evidence to inform the potential for local growth and change in the town centres and regeneration areas.
6.49 The council's policies will assist in ensuring a good range of convenient and accessible local facilities and services for borough residents, which is an important part of what makes a decent neighbourhood. The policies will also discourage the further increase of businesses such as pay day loan shops, gambling premises, pawnbrokers and hot food takeaways which are already well represented. Supporting policies will seek a range of shopping and other facilities in these centres and where development takes place, it may be appropriate to seek affordable space and agreements with developers so that a proportion of space can be offered to independent small retailers. In the Town Centres, the council will encourage uses which would contribute to the night time economy.
Shepherds Bush Town Centre
6.50 A key council priority is to capture the regenerative benefits of Westfield in Shepherds Bush Town Centre in achieving the objectives for the White City Opportunity Area. Other key proposals for Shepherds Bush include strengthening the western part of the town centre through the regeneration of the Shepherds Bush Market, which now has a planning permission to improve the market and provide large scale commercial, and employment uses. These initiatives will help strengthen the convenience offer in Shepherds Bush and assist in meeting local needs as well as enhance Shepherds Bush's function as a metropolitan centre.
Hammersmith Town Centre
6.51 Hammersmith will continue to be a major town centre, and the council will support development that improves the vitality and viability of the centre and retains its role as a centre for a diverse range of uses - offices, new employment sectors, local government and for arts, culture, leisure and services as well as shopping. A key site in meeting this objective, as well as providing new housing is the Civic Campus based around the Town Hall and adjacent land which is well underway and will rejuvenate the western part of the centre in an improved public realm. The Hammersmith Town Centre SPD provides a vision and further details on how this can be achieved.
Fulham Town Centre
6.52 Fulham Town Centre will be supported to re-establish its historic role in the locality and maintain its status as a major town centre in the London Plan. Regeneration in this locality should link with the regeneration of the Earls Court/West Kensington Opportunity Area.
Key local centres
6.53 In key local centres, the aim is to ensure a greater variety of uses than in neighbourhood parades. However, in both types of centre the council's policies will seek to retain a predominance of shopping over other uses. These centres can help contribute towards the identified estimated need for further low- and mid-ranking comparison and convenience retail floorspace to meet the needs of the local population. The council will work with its partners to try to coordinate service provision based on these centres. The council will consider the designation of further local centres or parades within the White City and Earls Court/West Kensington Opportunity Areas if this is required to meet the needs of the new development and is supported by capacity studies (see also policies for these individual areas). Those centres that adjoin or are in close proximity to the town centres are known as satellite parades. The purpose of these parades is to provide local services, but they also provide opportunities for a variety of uses that will support the nearby town centres.
Small shopping parades
6.54 In shopping parades other than those identified in the hierarchy, particularly where shops and premises have been vacant for a long time, there will be more limited protection of shopping facilities. Possible alternative uses in this scenario could include small offices, health facilities and other E(a) class uses. These alternative uses would need to be compatible with adjoining uses and therefore in some more residential locations, uses such as restaurants, pubs and bars may not be appropriate.
Prime retail frontages are where retail development is concentrated and generally comprise the main component of primary shopping areas in town centres. In all the centres and shopping areas, the aim is to maintain appropriate levels of retailing, local services and other uses. Recent changes in permitted development rights and the introduction of a broad commercial use (class E) have restricted the ability to manage uses within the town centre hierarchy and protected parades.
Changes of use
6.55 In April 2021 the government further relaxed planning rules so that changes of use of shops and other units in the shopping parades to residential units is now permitted development. This also limits the application of the policy to meet current and forecast local shopping, and day to day needs.
6.56 The council has consulted on a draft Article 4 Direction, which seeks to remove permitted development rights which allow change of use from shops, as well as other business, commercial and service uses to residential without the need for planning permission in the council's protected employment and shopping locations. To ensure that the flexibility within the new use class E does not lead to loss of essential shops, including local food shopping, or an overconcentration of a similar uses, planning conditions will be used to support ambitions and planning policies for protecting capacity and meeting shopping needs, ensuring vibrant town centres and local shopping needs are not undermined.
6.57 Further changes to this policy will partly depend on the outcome of the council's draft Article 4 Direction. The Direction is subject to consideration by the Secretary of State and is expected to be effective by December 2025, and will apply in the identified locations such as town and local centres and shopping parades which are protected for shopping and related uses.
Supermarkets
6.58 In addition to the hierarchy described above, there is one superstore in Sands End, another on Shepherds Bush Road and a small number of shed based retailers, mainly at Wandsworth Bridge. Whilst small supermarkets may expand the choice in local shopping centres, large stores can have potential for adverse impacts on town or local centres and increase local traffic. In order to ensure that smaller food stores that compete directly with local centres are assessed, the council has set a local threshold for retail impact assessments of 300sqm gross. This figure will also be tested and updated in the new Retail and Leisure Needs Study. Assessments. The information provided to assess impact should be proportionate to the development proposed and it will be necessary for applicants to agree the scope of any assessment at an early stage of any pre-application engagement.