Office-to-residential permitted development rights to be made permanent

It has been a busy few weeks for the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) with reforms to the planning regime coming from all angles.  As the Housing and Planning Bill continues to make its way through parliament with a series of legislative changes designed to speed up the planning system, it is now the turn of planning policy to be shaken up.

Following the Government’s recent Spending Review, a consultation was launched today on extensive changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).  The consultation runs until 25 January 2016, and includes some fairly significant proposals, namely:

• broadening the definition of affordable housing, to expand the range of low cost housing opportunities for those aspiring to own their new home.  The current definition includes some low cost home ownership models such as shared ownership and shared equity, provided that they are subject to “in perpetuity” restrictions or that the subsidy is recycled for alternative affordable housing provision.  The current consultation proposes that the definition of affordable housing is amended “so that it encompasses a fuller range of products that can support people to access home ownership”, and significantly, some of these products may not be subject to ‘in perpetuity’ restrictions or have recycled subsidy.

• increasing residential density around commuter hubs, to make more efficient use of land in suitable locations. The proposed amendments will expect local planning authorities, in both plan-making and in taking planning decisions, to require higher density development around commuter hubs ‘wherever feasible’ but falls short of actually introducing a minimum level of residential density in these locations.

• supporting sustainable new settlements, development on brownfield land and small sites, and delivery of housing allocated in plans. Perhaps most significant here is the proposal to make clearer in national policy that substantial weight should be given to the benefits of using brownfield land for housing (in effect, a form of ‘presumption’ in favour of brownfield land).

• supporting delivery of starter homes. Amendments are proposed to make clear that unviable or underused employment land should be released unless there is significant and compelling evidence to justify why such land should be retained for employment use.

The full consultation document can be found here. If you have any queries regarding the consultation, please feel free to contact one of the Firstplan team.