Tesco Stores Ltd v Dundee City Council [2012] UKSC 13
Tesco v Dundee is a leading Supreme Court authority on interpreting development-plan policy and applying the town-centre sequential approach.
Town centre sequential test case law
Browse 5 cases in the Planning Geek Case Law Library concerning Town centre sequential test.
R (on the application of Tesco Stores Ltd) v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and Lidl Great Britain Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 610
Tesco v Stockport 2025 is the current Court of Appeal authority on availability in the town-centre sequential test, confirming that a more central retail site can cease to be available when genuinely committed to another operator and effectively off the market.
R (on the application of Tesco Stores Ltd) v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and Lidl Great Britain Ltd [2023] EWHC 3154 (Admin)
Tesco v Stockport 2023 held that sequentially preferable retail sites could be treated as unavailable where they had genuinely been committed to other operators and were effectively off the market. That conclusion was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in 2025.
Aldergate Properties Ltd v Mansfield District Council & Anor [2016] EWHC 1670 (Admin)
Aldergate is the High Court authority confirming that the town-centre sequential test is generally applied to the broad type of development proposed, not reshaped around an individual retailer’s own corporate or competitive preferences.
Warners Retail (Moreton) Ltd v Cotswold District Council & Ors [2016] EWCA Civ 606
Warners Retail is a leading Court of Appeal authority on flexibility in the town-centre sequential test and on why the test must not be turned into a disguised requirement to prove retail need.
