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1998 Retail Development Survey

5. Type of Development

5.1 Table 6, on following page, sets out the level of floorspace submitted, approved, refused and under construction during 1998, across all local authorities for a range of retail 'types'. The retail types are classed as 'Convenience', 'Comparison including Retail Warehouse', 'Mixed' and 'Other', and comprise the following types of retail format:

5.2 The table shows that most of the planning applications submitted related to the 'Comparison' retail form (225,000 sq. m). This was followed by applications for 'Convenience' (157,000 sq. m), 'Other' (115,000 sq. m) and 'Mixed' (103,000 sq. m).

5.3 Most floorspace approved during 1998 related to proposals under the 'Comparison' category (155,000 sq. m). This was followed by the 'Other' format (105,000 sq. m), then 'Convenience' (100,000 sq. m) and 'Mixed' (98,000 sq. m). The highest amount refused consent without the prospect of further appeal also involved the 'Comparison' format (67,000 sq. m), followed by 'Convenience' (40,000 sq. m), and 'Other' (12,000 sq. m). No 'Mixed' retail development was refused consent.

5.4 'Mixed' retail developments comprised the highest amount of floorspace under construction (164,000 sq. m), followed by 'Other' (70,000 sq. m), 'Comparison' (40,000 sq. m) and 'Convenience' (37,000 sq. m).

Table 6: Retail type by Planning Stage and Local Authority

5.5 Table 7 provides a more detailed breakdown by specific retail format at a national level, to identify the amounts of floorspace involved at each of the key planning stages.

5.6 The table shows that, across Scotland, more applications were submitted for superstore development (32) than for any other retail format. Nevertheless, applications for retail warehouse park development proposed more total floorspace (146,000 sq. m) than any other format, including superstores.

5.7 There were also more recorded approvals and refusals for superstore development, although more retail floorspace was approved and refused for retail warehouse parks than for any other format, (102,000 sq. m and 36,000 sq. m respectively).

5.8 Although there were more Superstores under construction (8) than any other retail format, the five shopping centre / mall developments under construction provided significantly more floorspace; 161,000 sq. m compared to the 35,000 sq. m under construction in superstore developments.

5.9 Table 8 provides a comparison of the highest cumulative totals across key planning stages between the four combined major cities and the rest of Scotland.

5.10 The table shows that the highest cumulative level of floorspace submitted across the four major cities was 108,000 sq. m for retail warehouse park development. This compares with 37,000 sq. m in the non-city areas, where the highest level of floorspace submitted related to superstore proposals (85,000 sq. m). The corresponding figure in the cities was 31,000 sq. m.

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