Housing is needed. Green space is precious. And, after the coronavirus, some offices could be left empty. Anyone currently campaigning against the obvious solution of converting disused office space into housing would surely be mad?
Except, that is exactly what is happening. At the end of August, a campaign group calling itself “Rights: Community: Action” (RCA) launched a legal challenge to the government’s most recent extension of permitted development rights (PDR), which allows developers to demolish some commercial buildings in order to homes. A second recently passed statutory instrument, which also came into force on 31 August, gave homeowners and private landlords the right to extend upwards (in limited circumstances), without applying for full planning permission.
The RCA group claims the statutory instruments were passed too quickly and in breach of Article 3 of the EU’s Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive and Article 149 of the Equality Act 2010. It also accused the housing minister of favouring developers. Some of these claims look likely to be tested in the High Court in October, and a judicial review could be launched. Pitching the so-called ‘climate emergency’ against the need to build homes for hard-working families seems, to me at least, misled. The ‘environmental’ campaigners insist they want more consultation, but where do they propose to house people? On greenfield land?
The truth is we need radical action and the government knows it, insisting the reforms are part of a package that constitutes “the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War”. I am sceptical of this. Putting the long-awaited Planning for the Future white paper aside for a moment, both new variations to PDR are subject to an extensive list of exclusions and limitations, meaning they are, in my view, less radical than other recent changes.
The ‘environmental’ campaigners insist they want more consultation, but where do they propose to house people? On greenfield land?
Quite rightly, the variations to PDR do not apply in conservation areas, national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, world heritage sites, or sites of special scientific interest. But they also exclude entire London boroughs, and the right to extend homes upwards only applies to detached homes built between 1948 and 2018. You can also only add to buildings that are at least three storeys high, and if you want to add two extra floors to your home you will be subject to the normal planning regime. These variations to PDR are incremental, not radical.
These changes build on amendments to PDR made in 2013 which allowed offices, specifically, to be converted into much-needed homes. Offices typically have much stronger foundations and supporting structures than homes, making them ideal for conversion. It all made a lot of sense.
After the 2013 changes, First Property Group plc, my firm, bought and helped to convert ten office buildings and in 2016 the rule changes were, sensibly, made permanent. The policy has been deployed to produce more than 60,000 new homes[BH1] . It’s been a massive success and building on it now seems wise. In my opinion, the government should go further.
For better or worse, coronavirus looks to be rapidly changing how millions of people in the UK work, which could have a drastic effect on the office sector. I have campaigned for workers to return to offices, but so far, despite government demands for a return to normality, not many have in our city centres. Those declaring the end of offices are, almost certainly, getting ahead of themselves. I’ve heard this claim nearly all of my career, and I remain confident people will always want, and business will continue to need, physical spaces in which to work, mix, and learn from each other.
However, should widespread working from home continue, and lead to an increase in the office vacancy rate, it would make sense to convert the excess supply to alternate uses quickly. This would help the office market to adjust in line with demand whilst continuing to deliver housing. Data from Savills recently showed the supply of secondary office space has fallen 45% since 2015, with around 31 million sq. ft of offices converted to residential over the same period. In other words, the sector has kept up with changing working habits thanks to market forces and PDR, without which planning officers would almost certainly have resisted the change needed.
Furthermore, many of the new homes have been flats, which are ideal for first-time buyers. And they have been built by the private sector with private money whereas successive governments have abjectly failed to build enough housing. The only way to continue getting new homes on the market is continuing to deregulate planning law.
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