Mike Freer – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Freer on 2015-10-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of (a) extending and (b) making permanent permitted development rights to convert offices to residential buildings.
Brandon Lewis
To further support new housing supply and home ownership we are announcing further changes to permitted development rights. When the Government brought forward measures from the summer 2014 ‘Technical consultation on planning’ we undertook to further consider the case for extending the office to residential reforms, which are helping to provide more new homes on brownfield land. These rights are being used, with almost 4,900 applications received by councils in the five quarters ending June 2015 and 4,000 approved during the same period, without needing to go through the whole planning process.
Given the extensive use of the right, I can confirm that the Government intends to make permanent the permitted development right that provides for offices to change to residential use and extend the right to allow for demolition of the office and replacement by new housing on a like for like basis. This has the potential to allow for a new building to better accommodate new homes and improve design quality. We will allow for those applicants who already have prior approval or who secure a new prior approval to have three years from the date of their approval in which to complete the change of use.
Those areas that are currently exempt from the office to residential permitted development right, such as the City of London, the London Central Activities Zone and Central Manchester will remain so until May 2019. This will provide time for local authorities with exemptions to bring forward an Article 4 direction in line with national policy for these areas if they wish. Alongside this, we will also bring forward new permitted development rights for three years that allow buildings up to 500m2 used for light industry compatible with housing, to change to residential use. There will also be a permanent right for launderettes of up to 150m2 to change to residential. These changes will further increase the contribution to housing delivery and reduce unnecessary planning regulations.
These permitted development rights allow more development to take place without the need for a planning application. They will be subject to prior approval, allowing consideration by the local planning authority of specific planning matters.
