Planning bodies response to MHCLG consultation: “full and proper public consultation and engagement” needed

Planning bodies have submitted strong objections to government proposals to further relax permitted development (PD) rights – including changes to allow commercial buildings to be demolished and redeveloped as housing – with the Planning Officers’ Society arguing the move would ‘undermine the confidence of the public in the planning system’.

As part of a suite of announcements in October’s Budget, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published a consultation, Planning Reform: Supporting the high street and increasing the delivery of new homes, which set out a series of fresh proposed changes to the planning system.

Among its proposals, the document sought views on the creation of a new PD right “allowing for the demolition of commercial buildings and redevelopment as residential”.

It also proposed a new national PD right “to allow shops (A1) financial and professional services (A2), hot food takeaways (A5), betting shops, payday loan shop and launderettes to change to office use (B1)”. It also proposed to allow hot food takeaways (A5) to change to residential use (C3).

The consultation, which closed yesterday (14 January), further sought views on a new PD right to allow property owners to extend their buildings upwards. This was announced at the Conservative Party Conference by housing secretary James Brokenshire.

In addition, the government sought views on extending and making permanent two time-limited PD rights – one introduced in 2015 allowing the change of use from storage or distribution to residential; and the second from 2013 allowing larger extensions to houses.

In its response to the consultation, local authority body POS said it “strongly objects” to the demolition PD right proposal. The response said the demolition and replacement of buildings “should be the subject of full and proper public consultation and engagement as expected for pre-application advice and planning applications – reducing public consultation through using permitted development rights would undermine the confidence of the public in the planning system and cause confusion as to which route a developer is using and what the different policy positions apply”.

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and Town and Country and Planning Association (TCPA) also submitted strong objections to the proposal.

All three bodies also strongly objected to to the proposed upwards extension PD right.

POS said: “Adding height in this way needs to be given very careful consideration and must remain part of a planning application to establish both the principle of whether it is acceptable in a particular case and then deal with the details. Making it PD says that Parliament considers it acceptable in principle in all cases, which is patently not going to be the case.”

The RTPI said it had “no objection in principle to buildings being extended upwards, but think these measures will only make a very limited contribution to increasing housing supply, which needs to be weighed up against the long term impact that introducing permitted development will have in terms of quality of design and amenity for people around the sites”.

On the proposal to create a new PD right allowing easier conversion of high street premises to offices, the RTPI said that “a blanket PD right will mean un-planned changes to ground floor primary shopping frontages which could detrimentally affect those parts of high streets that may still be vibrant”.

POS also objected, saying that “withdrawing planning controls and letting the market decide is not the answer”. The TCPA said that it was “firmly opposed to the further extension of [PD rights]”.

On the extension and making permanent of the storage or distribution to residential PD right, the RTPI said that “there is a wealth of evidence that [this PD right] creates poor quality living conditions and below space standards”. POS said that the PD right is “forcing businesses out of premises without any replacement provision being delivered”.

On the extension and making permanent of the house extensions PD right, POS said: “When this was introduced [the government] stated that it was to assist small builders. Small builders have been assisted, so what is the justification to retain it. These extensions can cause material harm in many circumstances and should be subject to normal planning applications.”

The RTPI said the proposal “sounds reasonable”. However, it encouraged the government “to consider evidence of the impact to date before making a decision”.

Elsewhere, the document proposed removing the existing PD right for public call boxes, which was welcomed by all three bodies. Both POS and the RTPI said the existing system is “being abused”.

However, the free market think-tank Policy Exchange has broadly welcomed the proposals in the consultation.

Writing on the think-tank’s website, research fellow Jack Airey said that the planning system “has been a brake on the ability of high streets to adapt to prevailing trends in how we live, work and shop”.

However, talking about the proposed PD right allowing hot food takeaways to change to residential use, Airey said that measures should be put in place to ensure that any extended PD right should have “regard to nationally described space standards as part of tests for prior approval”, and to ensure that “due regard is given to guidance on the quality of street frontage”.

 

Article originally appeared on Planning Resource (This is a paid subscription service)

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