Retail Assessments are needed to promote most edge of and out of centre shopping schemes, and are a key pillar of the development’s supporting evidence base.

Through our extensive understanding of how shoppers use existing places and are likely to use a proposal, we produce persuasive evidence of relevant town centres’ vitality and viability and why trade is or is not diverted from them. We also provide effective ‘sequential assessments’ of potentially preferable town centre sites, relying on case law and a detailed understanding of retail and market realities. Each assessment is unique to the proposal and the retail geography of its wider location. We do not have a standard or ‘black box’ approach. Each step in our assessments is fully justified in terms of the realities of the market and shopper behaviour. Our assessments then always engage with local policy objectives so optimising the prospect of gaining consent.