Relaxing of office-to-residential schemes welcomed

THE announcement by the Government that it will make permanent the office-to-residential permitted development rights that have been in place since 2013 has been cautiosly welcomed.

The rights were due to expire on May 30 2016, but they will now remain in place.

Under the rules developers which already have permission under the current temporary right will have three years in which to complete their change of use, thus removing an element of doubt.

The permanent permitted development rights will allow the demolition of office buildings and their replacement by new build residential, subject to prior approval, details for which are yet to be released.

Light industrial and laundrette units will also now be liable for conversion into residential. It is anticipated that prior approval for conversion from the light industrial use class will be subject to the impact of the proposed residential use on neighbouring employment uses.

Planning lawyers at Manchester law firm Irwin Mitchell have hailed the move, but planning associate Emily Williams issued words of caution.

“This does create an element of uncertainty as it begs the question of what constitutes an ‘unacceptable impact’ in the refusal of prior approval,” she said.

“The Government considers that these changes will support the drive to deliver new housing through unlocking the potential of underused buildings whilst at the same time continuing to protect the greenbelt.

“However, it remains to be seen whether these measures will be sufficient to secure delivery of the quantity of new housing required to solve the housing crisis.

“It is worth noting that there is no consideration for affordable housing via this permitted development regime and one would question whether other adequate provisions such as infrastructure needed to support these conversions are in place.”