Ms Miriam Delaney:

I will first respond to the Chairman's question about the Scottish model of cross-departmental agreement and cohesion. It ties into Deputy Stanley's point about local authorities in that the two have to go hand in hand. It should not be a matter of making a choice between one level and another. Stronger local governance and stronger supports for active participation with local governance are what is needed.

A person who decides to renovate a vacant town centre property or wants to bring it back into use needs access to a one-stop shop within the local authority such that he or she can meet a planning officer, heritage officer and the person responsible for dealing with fire regulations and agree on how work will be done on the house or how they will deal with it. The private landowner should not have sole responsibility for commissioning reports, hiring conservation architects and going through all of the checklists. Agreement should be reached directly with the local authority.

Our tour of four towns very much brought to the fore that shop owners in small towns who are competing against out-of-down developments are losing the battle not just in terms of scale but also because they have overheads such as insurance and may be in a listed building that they have an onus to maintain. An out-of-town development does not experience those pressures. When they are in direct competition, it is an impossible battle for the small shop owner to win. They need more support from local authorities, to include financial support and more direct support of the renovation or maintenance of properties. Such support is lacking because local authorities are stretched and trying to do a lot of work in towns.

A direct focus on vacancy is missing. It is the number one issue. We agree that public consultation on design, retail and other such matters are important, but if vacancy is allowed to take hold such that there is a doughnut effect whereby the town centre is vacant and all development is on the periphery, the town will be beyond saving. Vacancy is the number one issue that needs to be tackled. Vacancy levels have risen from 12% to 20% and, in some towns, more than 40%. Once a critical point is reached, the town will not survive. We need to focus on putting money, expertise and cross-departmental support into vacancy.