Local government has been urged to give businesses more of an active role in local decision-making, in order to facilitate ‘thriving town centres'.

The call came from Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas, chair of the New West End Company, which is the UK's largest business improvement district (BID) – representing high streets in central London. Addressing delegates at a British Council of Shopping Centres conference, Dame Judith said: ‘Some local authorities operate as nothing more than large residents' associations, and this, combined with nimbyism, is bad for local investment and development.