Industry groups are taking action against the rapid rollout of major planning reform without what they see as the necessary scrutiny.
The British Property Federation has raised concerns with the legislation scrutiny committee following the expansion of permitted development rights last week.
Major stakeholders were blind-sided when new legislation for the conversion of almost any commercial premises (class E) to residential was tabled before the consultation was released.
Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the BPF (pictured), said the move “curtails scrutiny”. He said: “That particular statutory instrument, which was tabled on the same day the announcement was made, won’t get much scrutiny because of the Easter recess in parliament. I had wanted to flag that.”
The BPF has been lobbying against the PDR expansion, pushed out as part of the government’s “Project Speed”. It will now fight the changes as part of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee investigation into PDR.
Fletcher added: “The continued concern is on the high street and the extent to which this will lead to disappointed high streets with different haphazard uses along them.
“We continue to make the case that this was bad policy and we will use parliamentary mechanisms to highlight that.”
Following the announcements, the Royal Town Planning Institute criticised the government for “sneaking out” the news during recess, before the responses to the December consultation were released. The group expressed “grave concern” over the process.
It has since joined forces with RIBA and RICS, among others, calling on prime minister Boris Johnson to reverse the law.
The PDR legislation came ahead of a flurry of announcements from the government, responding to proposed changes to the current planning system. Following consultation with planners, the industry and local MP interest, the largest changes have all been reversed.
Government will now no longer introduce permission in principle for small sites, affordable housing exemptions or revisions to the standard methodology for identifying housing targets.
However, the BPF supports those changes, though Fletcher noted that they followed weigh-in from local MPs that did not engage to the same extent over PDR changes.
He said: “This is giving almost an automatic right to residential development where there was commercial. One would have expected slightly more engagement at an MP level.
“[The new PDR legislation] seem to be very much driven by the politicians themselves. They strongly believed in this particular policy and wanted to see it in place.”
He added: “The ministry will expose themselves to criticism whenever there is the loss of a corner shop that people valued or there are inappropriate residential developments halfway along the high street. That’s something MHCLG will have to react to.”
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