Next boss Lord Wolfson has called for an overhaul of the UK’s planning rules after he warned current regulations were “holding back industry and society”.
The chief executive said trying to build new stores in places where people shopped was a “constant battle” and “that is replicated across the whole industry”.
He told The Times: “If you ask any type of business, whether it be energy infrastructure, warehousing, distribution or call centres, to name their biggest concerns, planning is going to be top on their list of issues.
“The time it takes to get permission, the cost of getting it and the inability to build what you really need to build is holding back industry and society.”
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Lord Wolfson, who is also a Conservative peer, said that building Next’s warehouses could be quicker than the three or four years waiting time it takes to get planning permission.
He said that giving less power to land owners could be the “key to driving growth and productivity in the UK”.
“Rather than the government having to initiate and decide where people live, work, eat, sleep and take their leisure, have a system which starts with a free market, but a free market with rigorous controls and regulations.
“While you can’t prevent other properties being built if you own a property, you can prevent the building of things that would damage the value of your property.
“You’d end up with a system that allows the market to decide where and how things are built.”
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