The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents 370 different councils in England and Wales, has put forward a scathing critique of permitted development rights.
Permitted development rights are set in law and automatically grant planning permission for small, uncontentious developments as long as the final development is able to meet certain conditions and limitations. If those conditions and limitations cannot be met, planning permission must be sought. The aim of this is to free up some of the local planning authority's resources and speed up other planning applications.
However, the LGA is now arguing that permitted development rights are having a negative effect on the housing market. Some permitted development rights allow the conversion of an office space into a home. However, LGA research suggests that almost one in 10 new homes in the last two years (30,575 since 2015) have been converted from an existing office using permitted development rights, and this means there has been no investment into affordable housing or supporting infrastructure.
As such, the LGA claims that such permitted development rights have led to a "potential loss of more than 7,500 desperately-needed affordable homes."
In a statement, the LGA said, "Office to residential conversions under permitted development rules accounted for 73 per cent of new homes in Stevenage, 64 per cent in Three Rivers, and 61 per cent in Sutton during 2016/17." Whereas "In Nottingham, Basildon, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Hounslow and Harlow the number was more than half."
In addition to this argument, Cllr Martin Tett, the LGA’s housing spokesman, said: "It is vital that councils and local communities have a voice in the planning process. At present, permitted development rules allow developers to bypass local influence and convert offices to flats, and to do so without providing affordable housing and local services and infrastructure such as roads and schools. Permitted development is detrimental to the ability of local communities to shape the area they live in."
Cedrec's take
Whilst these arguments are valid, it is unlikely that the permitted development rights surrounding housing conversions will be fully removed. The Government is desperate to meet its ambitious target for new homes, laying much of the blame for the lack of house building firmly on the planning system. In recent years, the Government has taken steps to relax some planning laws surrounding the building of new homes in the hope that more may be built.
As such, we expect that permitted development rights are here to stay, but that doesn't mean they won't be amended in order to tighten the conditions and limitations attached to such rights in order to make them more agreeable in planning terms. Only time will tell.
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