As foreshadowed in the Budget, the Government has now started a
formal consultation on relaxing the planning rules for changes of
use from commercial to residential.
The Government's view is that this responds to a recognised and
urgent need to increase housing supply at a national level, and
that in general housing is likely to have fewer wider land-use
impacts than commercial uses. The Government also considers
this will promote regeneration of commercial land and help bring
empty commercial buildings back into productive use.
The intention is to amend the Town and Country Planning (General
Permitted Development) Order 1995 to allow changes of use from
commercial to residential as permitted development, rather than
requiring planning applications.
Whilst the main proposal is to allow changes from B1 (business
– offices, research and development premises and light
industry) to C3 (dwellinghouses), the Government is also consulting
on allowing changes from B2 (general industrial) and B8 (storage
and distribution) to C3 as well. The estimate is this could
produce a total of 14,000 dwellings per year from B-class
buildings.
The consultation considers how factors such as availability of
commercial land, transport, parking, noise, amenity, housing mix
and residential values could be affected by the relaxed
rules. It also seeks views on whether there should be
pre-conditions, thresholds, and exclusions built into the new
rules.
The new rules would only allow change of use. Where a
development requires additional work to the exterior of an existing
building, or is a new build development, a planning application for
operational development will be required, but the areas of
contention should be reduced.
There is a secondary proposal to allow more than a single flat to
be provided above shops and other town centre premises.
The consultation was published on 8 April and runs until 30 June
2011.
The impact of all these proposals, if implemented, would be
reviewed after three years.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 13/04/2011.