This Government loves permitted development rights. Two of their most ambitious ones so far have yet to be reflected in legislation. I’m not holding my breath as to when they will emerge or how workable and/or significant they will turn out to be.
Office demolition and residential rebuild
Brandon Lewis announced way back on 13 October 2015 that there would be a new development right to “allow the demolition of office buildings and new building for residential use”.
I assume that the delay has been caused by the need for an amendment to section 60 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, now achieved by section 152 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, because section 60 limited (in relation to permitted development rights for the erection, extension or alteration of any building) the matters that may be dealt with by way of prior approval, to “the design or external appearance of the building”. Section 152 extends this, with immediate effect, to “any matters that relate to those operations…and are specified in the order”.
That additional flexibility will be necessary because surely all manner of issues will need to be controlled, not least the issues dealt with by way of prior approval in relation to office to residential use permitted development use changes: highways and transportation, flood risk, contamination and issues in relation to noise from nearby commercial premises.
However there are bigger unanswered questions:
– what scale of redevelopment will be possible?
– will the height, floorspace quantum or development envelope be pegged to that of the existing building?
– what of mixed uses (for example commercial uses at the ground floor)?
– presumably no starter homes or affordable housing requirements?
In London, the Government is also going to come up against London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s well publicised concern as to the loss of office space by way of permitted development rights. This is his 3 June 2016 press statement.
Upward extensions in London
The February 2016 DCLG/Mayor of London consultation paper sought views on proposals “to increase housing supply in the capital by allowing a limited number of additional storeys to be built up to the roofline of an adjoining building through permitted development rights, local development orders or development plan policies”.
The key components of a new permitted development right would be
– requirement that the additional space be used to provide self-contained additional housing units
– upwards constraint of one or two additional storeys, “up to the level of an adjoining roofline”. The right could not be used incrementally on premises adjacent to those where the right has been exercised. Confusingly, it is said that the right “would apply to premises within a single terrace, where the premises at either end of the terrace have a higher roofline than the rest of the terrace”. This is pretty specific!
– neighbour consultation scheme equivalent to that introduced in May 2013 for larger single storey rear extensions to homes and only where neighbours raise objections would the LPA have to consider the impact of the proposed development on their amenity
– prior approval requirement to allow for consideration of other issues, including space standards and method and hours of construction
– some locations to be excluded eg within the curtilage of listed buildings. The paper indicates that the right would not necessarily be excluded from conservation areas or from protected view corridors but “an additional prior approval could require the local planning authority to consider the impacts of the proposed development on a conservation area or a protected view. London boroughs would determine whether further storeys are appropriate in specific conservation areas or protected views and apply local design codes…”
Sadiq Khan has expressed no view yet on the upward extension initiative. Assuming it goes forward to legislation, do we really think that there are many sites that meet the criteria and which would either not have proceeded smoothly anyway via a traditional planning application or which would not have been stymied in any event due to landlord and tenant, rights of light or viability concerns?
Simon Ricketts 15.6.16
Personal views etc
SIMONICITY 