Intu agrees that there is a need to re-examine the detail and the appropriateness of the existing conditions for retail growth. The existence of these pre-conditions has served to prevent investment coming forward and the underlying growth objectives of the BCCS have not been realised as a result. We comment further below.

iMH contains over 240 retail and leisure units within the covered shopping centre. The adjacent uses include a multiplex cinema, 21 retail warehouse units and 5 restaurants. iMH is located within Dudley Metropolitan Borough, about 10 miles west of Birmingham City Centre. The town centre and retail hierarchy is set out within the Black Country Core Strategy (Policy CEN2 and Table 13), which identifies Brierley Hill (including iMH), West Bromwich, Walsall and Wolverhampton as Strategic Centres at the top of the hierarchy.

The Javelin Group's Venuescore ranks over 3,500 retail destinations in the UK including town centres, retail malls, retail warehouse parks and factory outlet centres. Each destination is given a weighted score for the number of multiple retailers present, including anchor stores, fashion operators and non-fashion multiplies. The score attributed to each retailer is weighted depending on their overall impact on shopping patterns, for example a large department store will achieve a high score. The Venuescore data closely correlates to the actual market size of the shopping destination in terms of consumer expenditure. This Javelin Group data provides a good understanding of where iMH and iMH Retail Park sit in the regional shopping hierarchy, and how they compare with other destinations.

According to the 2016/17 Venuescore rankings, iMH is ranked third out of all the centres located within the sub-region, with a Venuescore of 219, and ranked 62nd when compared with all centres across the UK. iMH was ranked 43rd by Javelin in 2010 and has dropped 19 places in recent years. The combined Venuescore for iMH and iMH Retail Park would be 259 (219 plus 40) compared with Birmingham City Centre's Venuescore of 640. Birmingham City Centre's Venuescore increased from 561 in 2013 to 686 in 2015/16 due to the opening of Grand Central, but then dropped to 640 in 2016/17.

Within Dudley Borough, Dudley town centre's Venuescore is only 60, and the historic part of Brierley Hill has a lower Venuescore of 30. These two centres occupy a much lower position in the shopping hierarchy and serve a much more localised area than iMH. Dudley and Brierley Hill are predominantly service centres rather than comparison shopping destinations.

Javelin's analysis underlines the importance of iMH for meeting the higher order comparison goods shopping needs in DMBC. As a higher order shopping destination, iMH sits alongside the other major shopping destinations in surrounding borough's in particular Birmingham City Centre, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton.

Venuescore also assesses the market position of centres based on the retailers present and the centre's relative position along a spectrum running from discount to luxury or down-market to aspirational (i.e. lower, middle to upscale). Birmingham City Centre is a top tier centre and its market position is "Upper Middle", which suggests it has an excellent and high quality comparison retail offer, comparable with other top destinations across the country. Although smaller centres than Birmingham City Centre, Solihull, Leamington Spa and Stratford upon Avon are the only other "Upper Middle" centres in the sub-region. ). iMH is classed as "Middle" in terms of market position centre, suggesting that the retail offer is more mid-market.

In this respect iMH is comparable with Coventry, Wolverhampton, Telford and Sutton Coldfield. Despite its size, iMH falls below many of intu's other regional shopping centres in terms of Venuescore, market position, fashion orientation and fashion classification. There is potential to improve and diversify iMH's fashion offer, to enhance the centre's market position from "Middle" to "Upper Middle" and to improve the fashionability of its offer from "Moderate" to "Forward". In order to do this, iMH will need to evolve, diversify and expand its retail offer to appeal to a wider customer base and attract new retailers not currently represented in the centre. This will ensure iMH continues to offer a strong comparison retail offer and provide additional employment opportunities.

The food/service orientation index indicates the strength of the centre's food and beverage offer is relatively poor at 89 (national average = 100). The tourist orientation index indicates the strength of retail offer that is most likely to appeal to tourists is higher at 130 (national average = 100), but well below intu's other regional shopping centres. There is potential to increase iMH's food/service index to 100 around the national average and its tourist orientation to between 150 to 200. This will help diversify the centre, protecting it against changes in the retail market, increase dwell time, complement the retail offer and increase employment opportunities.

iMH will need to respond and adapt to changing customer need. Over the plan period, significant new investment is proposed at iMH to ensure it remains a primary retail and leisure destination as part of the designated Strategic Centre of Brierley Hill.It is incumbent on planning policy to help this long established centre to maintain and enhance its role in the future so the economic benefits the centre creates can be enjoyed by future generations.

Policy CEN3 was prepared in a very different economic environment and retail market to now. This policy is not fit for purpose and is preventing the change and investment it was meant to deliver. Investment has come forward in surrounding centres in recent years and it is important that iMH is able to adapt and grow to ensure it can compete with these surrounding centres. Further, without investment and development at iMH, embedded infrastructure or that secured by planning obligations or potentially Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) will not be forthcoming. Intu wants to improve accessibility and connectivity to iMH and the surrounding area (a lot of which is within their ownership), in line with policy objectives, but can only do this on the back of new investment in the centre.

Policy CEN3 adopts an 'all or nothing' approach. It was prepared when there were proposals to double the size of the centre with need identified for significant amounts of new comparison and convenience retail floorspace. However, prior to any of this floorspace being provided, policy requires the provision of significant new public transport infrastructure and introduction of car park charging.

Not only are these requirements significant obligations in their own right, their timing (i.e. prior to any new floorspace being delivered) and the requirement that they are delivered wholly by a single developer makes them even more onerous. At the time the policy was considered to be proportionate to the proposed development. It allowed for significant retail growth at Merry Hill, as part of the new Brierley Hill Strategic Centre, but only if the pre-conditions were delivered. Given the scale of growth allowed for at Merry Hill the then owners considered this was an acceptable arrangement.

As set out in response to other questions, the retail market has changed significantly. Intu still has plans to expand and improve the offer at iMH; however it is unlikely that within the lifetime of the BCCS review that the scale of retail floorspace envisaged when the existing policy was formulated will come forward.

A significant proportion of the new floorspace at iMH will be focused on leisure and food and beverage. As evidenced above, these uses are under-provided in the existing centre and these are growing sectors of the market. New comparison retail floorspace will also form a large proportion of the new floorspace, and will take the form of extensions to the shopping centre, and reconfiguration and refurbishment of the existing floorspace to ensure it continues to attract and retain the best possible tenants.

The review of the BCCS should allow iMH to evolve and improve its existing offer and expand without being undermined by the imposition of hugely disproportionate pre-conditions which have prevented new investment from coming forward.

In relation to the provision of improved public transport infrastructure, after many years of delay and uncertainty, the Midland Metro extension now appears likely to be delivered although this is unlikely to be operational at iMH until 2022 at the earliest. Whilst intu is working with Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), there is nothing intu can do to accelerate this timetable. Intu has recently delivered improvements to the bus station so it can form a modern integrated transport hub with the Metro, once it arrives. Whilst intu is supportive of other sustainable modes of travel in line with its Corporate Social Responsibility, the Metro line extension must ensure that appropriate access to iMH is maintained at all times during and post-construction.

Notwithstanding the above progress, the public transport requirements listed within CEN3 could not be delivered by intu's proposals for iMH alone as it wouldn't be viable; therefore the mechanisms, funding and timing of these improvements will need to be revisited within this BCCS review.

Moving to the requirement to introduce car parking charges at iMH, which existing policy states must be in place before any new comparison retail floorspace can be delivered, this requirement is not practicable or deliverable. Parking charges would harm the economic sustainability of iMH. Since the policy pre-condition for car park charging was introduced, the retail industry has changed significantly. Customers now have more choice in terms of where they shop (including high streets, shopping centres, retail parks and SFT) and how they shop for goods and services. The market is more competitive and challenging than ever and a significant change such as introducing car park charging at a well-established centre such as iMH would have a significant impact on the economic stability of the centre. This would have a consequential impact on employment numbers and wealth generation in the area.

Intu undertook a shopper survey at iMH where respondents were asked if car parking charges were introduced at a consistent level with other nearby town centres, whether it would change shopping habits. A total of 47.7% of respondents said they would change their habits. For those who said they would change their shopping habits, following the introduction of car park charging:
* 60% said they would visit the centre less
* 25.2% said they would shop more at retail parks with free parking
* 20.2% said they would spend less time at iMH
* 5.4% would use the internet more

This demonstrates the significant economic impact introducing car park charging could potentially have upon visitor numbers and trips to iMH (and therefore Brierley Hill Strategic Centre) and the knock on effects this would have upon retailers, jobs, wealth creation and regeneration of the wider area. The reduction in visitors and the time they spend at the centre is particularly concerning based on the need to maintain or increase visitor numbers and also extend dwell time.

Further, since April 2017, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council has been trailing free two hours parking on Council car parks in Dudley, Brierley Hill, Halesowen and Sedgley. The two-hour trial will end on 30 September 2017. We understand the Council will then trial one hour of free parking on all council-owned car parks across the Borough from 1 October 2017, with a view to potentially bringing it in permanently. This serves to emphasise that it isn't the role of the planning system to attempt to control car parking charging at iMH or anywhere else across the Black Country for that matter.

In addition, parking charges are not implementable. Intu's ownership at iMH comprises a number of different types of retail offer including the shopping centre, retail parks and superstores. There are also a number of retail units and the cinema, with their associated parking, some of which are outside of intu's control. These different formats and ownerships, together with the existing lease agreements, some which specifically prevent car park charging being introduced, make the consistent application of car park charging over the area impossible to implement in practice.

Charging would also lead to unsustainable travel patterns. As evidenced in DMBC Monitoring Reports, since the adoption of Policy CEN3, the majority of retail floorspace permitted in the Borough has been of an out-of-centre open A1 retail park type offer - where car parking charging has not been required. No significant new retail floorspace has come forward at iMH, partly as a consequence of the current pre-conditions in Policy CEN3. Without the value created through this retail development, the delivery of the essential infrastructure to support the vision for Brierley Hill has failed to materialise. Policy should instead focus on encouraging the use of alternative sustainable transport methods to assist with creating sustainable travel patterns.

There are no controls on parking at retail parks (and the majority of superstores) within Dudley or the Black Country, and no proposals to introduce them as far as we are aware. Thus, and as evidenced by the recent iMH shopper survey referred to above, should car park charging be introduced at the centre this will encourage more people to shop at out of centre retail parks and superstores, within, and outside the Borough - travelling further by car to locations without good public transport, thereby increasing unsustainable travel patterns. Furthermore, only 7.4% of respondents in the shopper survey said that if car park charging were introduced they would be more likely to use public transport to visit the centre. This is not a substantial increase in public transport usage visiting the centre when compared to the change in number of visitors to the centre identified by the same shopper survey.

Maintaining these types of pre-conditions in policy will undermine future development at iMH and wider regeneration within Brierley Hill, and therefore the underlying policy objectives will not be delivered.

Intu supports the vision for the future of the Black Country, the existing retail hierarchy and the principle of growth in Strategic Centres. However, the pre-conditions of Policy CEN3 have undermined the delivery of investment at Brierley Hill Strategic Centre and therefore the regeneration objectives for this area have not been realised. This needs to be assessed in emerging policy.

Any new or amended policy should roll forward the underlying growth and regeneration objectives for the Strategic Centres and recognise the potential that exists within these centres, including Brierley Hill. This would be consistent with national policy and show effective joint working on cross-boundary strategic priorities across the Black Country, in line with NPPF requirements. Any additional detailed policy specifically relating to iMH must be positively prepared in so far as it must seek to meet objectively assessed development and infrastructure requirements and avoid the imposition of any pre-conditions which undermine the regeneration objectives policy is seeking to promote.

Policy should be informed by updated evidence on retail and leisure development needs and the latest position on transport infrastructure investment. It should allow for the phased delivery of infrastructure including that which might be delivered by developers, by Midland Metro and by other means e.g. via CIL payments. The requirement for parking charges must be removed if the economic sustainability of the centre is to be safeguarded in the long term and regeneration objectives are to be met. Without this requirement being removed, investment simply will not occur.

Policy CEN3 also required the adoption of an Area Action Plan as another precondition and this was adopted soon after the Core Strategy. Although the AAP was adopted in 2011, this was prepared on the basis of the previously identified growth and development scenario. Intu would therefore like the Core Strategy Review itself to provide the clarity and certainty from a policy perspective to allow investment to be brought forward immediately, without a requirement for new or revised development plan documents or supplementary planning documents to be prepared, which will merely delay investment coming forward even further.