The White Paper follows last year's Barker Report on planning and aims to improve the planning system's speed, responsiveness and efficiency.

According to Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Ruth Kelly, the White Paper will include reform of the needs test for out-of-town development although the 'town centres first' policy will remain.

Building on Barker's and Rod Eddington's proposals for reform of the planning treatment of major infrastructure projects, the White Paper will introduce a system of national policy statements for projects of national importance, such as power stations and airports. And an independent planning commission, accountable to parliament, will take final decisions on such projects. And there will be an easier and improved appeals process.

Talking at the British Property Federation Conference, Caroline Spelman MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, expressed concern about any weakening of the 1996 planning guidance on out-of-town development. She said it had heped deliver the current balance between creating the economic and commercial opportunities that out-of-town shopping gives consumers and the economy without triggering town centre decline.

"I know that businesses applying for out-of-town development rights will have done sophisticated modelling to determine customer demand and anticipated footfall," she said. "But that analysis has to be weighed against the impact on the town centre, the environmental implications of the development and the infrastructure demands.

"So it becomes more than a simple question of business viability - it becomes a value judgement about local priorities and how appropriate a development is. The decline of town centres is not, in my opinion, exclusively the result of out-of-town retail, but also other factors like rates, rent and parking.

"To address all of those you need accountability and you need local involvement in decision-making. The public's appetite for involvement in the decisions that shape where they live is one that politicians cannot and should not ignore."

Spelman said planning decisions are often encumbered with objections, appeals and public anger because the mechanism for involving local people in the planning process is inadequate. "The irony is that by sidelining local opinion, the government is creating a political climate which makes councils more sceptical of new development because they anticipate a public backlash," she said.

"In the White Paper the government makes great play of improved consultation whilst weakening the scope for elected representatives in the community to make the key decisions."

Chris Goddard, head of retail planning at GVA Grimley, said nobody really knows what impact the White Paper will have on out-of-town development but he believes it implies that the current needs test will be scrapped and that the process will switch to impact.

He said that if a development is to secure choice and competition in retail investment and have no adverse impact on the local area then there will be an absence of need.

"I don't think the government will lessen it's commitment to town centres," he said. "It's a change in emphasis. It's less about the process wording in the policy and more about how the government will interpret its policy in practice because there has always been flexibility to allow out-of-centre developments as long as it doesn't undermine nearby town centres and if there is demand."

Faraz Baber, director for planning and regeneration policy at the British Property Federation, said the announcements are a positive step to delivering an efficient planning system and taking the difficult decisions that must be made on major developments.

"The true test will lie in the government's ability to form the national policy statements and the independent planning commission's ability to take and implement its decisions, having them stand up in court," he said.

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