The National Retail Planning Forum (NRPF) was a not-for-profit company and registered charity, that aimed to bring together retail firms, investment institutions, property development companies and planning consultants and other retail specialists with government, local government, professional institutions and the academic and research sector.
The NRPF sought to:
- Promote a better understanding of the nature of the retail trade and commerce and the impact on these of the planning system
- Improve understanding between private and public sectors on retail planning issues
- Identify and disseminate best practice
- Ensure that retail planning issues are addressed effectively in planning education
- Promote a collaborative programme of research, workshops and events to raise awareness.
Their website had a wealth of material on aspects of retail planning and retail planning news and much of it has been archived here.
The association between the University of Stirling and the NRPF goes back to the late 1990s, when we were commissioned to undertake an annual review of the literature on retail planning. This has now been codified into the Knowledge Base. The Knowledge Base contains an amalgamated bibliography on retail planing covering 1998-2011 and recent annual updates covering material published in 2012 and 2013. In addition, from the mid-2000s we have produced short briefing papers on various retail planning topics, and continue to do so when topics are suggested or requested. All this material is available free to download from the NRPF and also now from this blog (click on the links below) .
Knowledge Base
The Knowledge Base 1998-2011: an annotated guide to the retail planning literature.
2012 Retail Planning Publications: an annotated guide
2013 Retail Planning Publications: an annotated guide and associated commentary.
Briefing Papers
Each Briefing Note comprises a short listing of abstracted references, a list of useful web sites, a list of researchers to contact and a key findings section.
Briefing Notes published so far examine the following topics:
- 16: Town centre and high street reviews (2014)
- 15: Linked trips (2014)
- 14: Diversity (2010)
- 13: Retail vacancy (2010)
- 12: Eco towns (2009)
- 11: Urban regeneration (2008)
- 10: BIDS (2008)
- 9: Evidence base (2008)
- 8: The sequential approach (2007)
- 7: The need test (2007)
- 6: Scottish retail planning policy (2006)
- 5: Competition in food retailing (2006)
- 4: Neighbourhood retailing (2006)
- 3: Clone towns (2006)
- 2: Food deserts (2006)
- 1: Farmers’ markets (2006)
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