Out of town shopping centres should be redeveloped and turned into mixed used schemes, the Town and Country Planning Association has said.

Launching two new policy statements – on retail and transport - the TCPA has set out how integrated planning can revitalise communities by re-connecting retail with homes, public transport, leisure, and jobs.

TCPA director Gideon Amos said government and planners should address the mistakes of past years. "Evidence shows how an unplanned approach to out-of-town shopping leads to urban sprawl and damages retail businesses in town centres, "Amos said. "Successful and sustainable planning must respond to the needs and aspirations of communities, as well as to the current and future impacts of regeneration and growth."

Gideon Amos added: "The opportunity to revitalise our outmoded retail sites presents an exciting challenge to us all. We need to be more imaginative about using our existing assets to create more accessible town centres, deliver housing and prevent sprawl. The alternative, separating shopping from where we live and work is unsustainable, and causes social exclusion and unnecessary congestion."

"Planners have the power to breathe life and vitality back into our neighbourhoods, for example by encouraging high levels of human interaction, and protecting local distinctiveness. Cultural and economic diversity should be actively promoted to offset the ‘clone-town’ impacts of large retailers."

David Lock associate's director Julia Foster, drawing on her experience from the re-development of Merry Hill shopping centre in the West Midlands, said: "Planning policy must address the future of the large out-of-town shopping malls that emerged during the late 1980s and early 1990s."

"The more enlightened owners observed the ‘death of the mall’ in the USA and are facing up to the need to create more integrated, accessible, sustainable and human environments. Retail investment can also act as a driver for much wider regeneration."

"The strategy to transform the Merry Hill shopping centre in the West Midlands has led the way in the UK. It has been a long and challenging process which has still to run its full course but important progress has been made in introducing new uses (most notably housing) condensing car parking, making way for new public transport and creating a new public realm."