The government’s plans to introduce the most far-reaching permitted development rights for all commercial conversions to residential have been slammed as a threat to essential services and high streets.
The comments follow the government’s moves to introduce PDR for all commercial (class E) property to residential from 1 August 2021.
Announcing the expansion, communities secretary Robert Jenrick, said: “We are creating the most small business friendly planning system in the world to provide the flexibility needed for high streets to bounce back from the pandemic.”
Victoria Hills, chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, said: “I fear that these new regulations will be a golden gift for unscrupulous landlords and developers who will be falling over themselves to make a quick buck on residential conversions.
“Since the pandemic our high streets have become much more of a focus for local communities, so I am deeply concerned that essential local services such as convenience stores, crèches, pharmacies, solicitors and post offices could be wiped out for good, impacting those who can least afford to travel and reducing local employment.”
Hills criticised the failure to include design codes as a requirement in the conversions, following the rollout of national guidance just weeks ago.
Hugh Ellis, director of policy at the Town and Country Planning Association, added: “This move risks being a disaster for our high streets, for local democracy and for the future of decent housing.
“The government has ignored the evidence it commissioned which pointed to the shockingly poor outcomes that existing permitted development has delivered and at one stroke undermined local authority plans for the comprehensive redevelopment of towns and city centres.”
Ian Fletcher, director of real estate policy at the BPF, said: “Local communities and their representatives will be perturbed to discover that just about any shop, restaurant, nursery or other community facility now comes with an automatic right to convert to residential.
“New residential development can play a vital role in town centre recovery post-Covid but poorly planned PDR homes will do more harm than good. It’ll result in a piecemeal approach, without taking into consideration what the entire high street requires to successfully serve the community.”
These concerns have been echoed by the London Property Alliance, which represents more than 400 private sector businesses.
Charles Begley, executive director for the LPA, said: “Taking an effective blanket approach to turning former shops, cafés or offices into housing in commercial districts would lead to the erosion of the vibrancy of city centres at a time when we should be helping these evolve for new ways of working and spending our leisure time.
“Given the CAZ’s high land values, it would not deliver homes at affordable prices, or in locations with the required social and community infrastructure. In our submissions to government, we called for an element of local control to be retained to protect London’s commercial core and locally led placemaking.”
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