When Planning Minister Nick Boles introduced legislation in May last year to speed up office-to-residential conversions he expected to boost housing supply and spur town centre regeneration. Yet one year on the minister is far from satisfied with progress in some parts of the country.
It is clear why Mr Boles is keen to see these conversions. Promoting the regeneration of brownfield land in town centres for new housing skirts the inevitable controversy that comes with Green Belt development and also provides a much-needed boost to moribund town centres by creating jobs and increasing footfall.
The Government claims the policy, which allows for offices to be converted into homes without full planning permission, has been embraced by the housing industry. Figures from Estates Gazette seem to bear this out – in the policy’s first six months 2,250 applications for change of use were registered.
Some local authorities have not shared Mr Boles’s and developers’ enthusiasm, however, and have stymied conversion schemes. So far, eight local authorities have used their national rights under Article 4 to prevent conversions. Two of these – the London Borough of Islington and Broxbourne Borough Council – have been identified by the housing minister as having applied Article 4 directions disproportionately. Both local authorities had applied the directions to the whole borough, meaning that, in effect, planning permission would be required again for conversions, thereby defeating the point of the legislation.
The planning minister states that he will write to these local authorities to “request that they consider reducing the extent of their directions so that they are more targeted.”
Kieron Hodgson, Planning Director at Iceni Projects comments:
“The Class J provisions are now nearly 9 months old. What has become clear during this time is that different authorities are taking very different approaches to the both the interpretation of Regulations and their implementation. Some Boroughs are clearly positive and are working proactively with developers to deliver much needed homes. Other Boroughs, including Islington, are not.
“Developers seeking to exploit the Class J provisions in difficult Boroughs have found it tough going with prior approvals being refused, resulting in the need for legal opinion and or appeal all of which adds time and cost to a process the original purpose of which was to be simple. In this respect we are hopeful that the additional planning practice guidance being sent to Councils by the CLG will help resolve all of these points.”