The government has created a new permitted development right to allow upwards extensions of two-storeys on a block of flats without the need for planning consent.
Regulations will allow buildings of up to 30m, when it comes into force on 1 August.
The legislation follows the 2018 announcement from then housing secretary Sajid Javid to allow building owners to extend their properties to boost housing delivery.
Extensions can be added to a detached block of flats of three storeys or more. It is limited to purpose-built properties constructed between 1 July 1948 and 5 March 2018.
The regulation also stipulates that the floor-to-ceiling height of the new floors cannot be higher than that of existing storeys and no higher than 3m.
It comes as part of a drive from the government to enable housing development with new measures set to bypass local authority planning departments and developer contributions.
Controversial office-to-residential permitted development has driven a surge of homes that critics have slammed as the “slums of the future”. But the government has vowed to expand their applications in efforts to deliver 300,000 new homes a year.
Earlier this year, housing secretary Robert Jenrick said the government was working to allow PDR for all vacant commercial, industrial and residential sites to be redeveloped as housing.
He also unveiled plans for a radical reform of the planning system with zoning tools and a fast-track for beauty, to further accelerate housing development.
The new rules come with the housing secretary under scrutiny following his handling of the £1bn Westferry Printworks planning approval. Jenrick ignored recommendations from the planning inspector to refuse the scheme, controversially helping media tycoon Richard Desmond to avoid £45m in CIL owed to Tower Hamlets Council.
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