Change UK MPs demand halt to permitted development conversions

Change UK has called on the government to rein in the practice of turning commercial properties into what the group calls substandard housing through permitted development rights’ rules, six years after the legislation was changed to allow such conversions.

Permitted development rights (PDRs) had for some time allowed homeowners to carry out work on their properties without the need for planning permission.

But in 2013 the rules were tweaked to ease the path of developers looking to convert non-residential space, such as offices and commercial properties, into homes without the need for extensive planning oversight.

Responding to an article in The Times newspaper highlighting the growth in PDRs and the sort of resulting accommodation some find themselves living in, the MPs – all members of the Change UK party, which is made up of defectors from the Conservative and Labour parties in Westminster – wrote to communities secretary James Brokenshire, urging him to halt the practice.

The letter, signed by Anna Soubry, Ann Coffey, Chris Leslie, Mike Gapes and Joan Ryan, said they were writing to bring Brokenshire’s attention the reports in the newspaper “regarding the conversion of commercial office spaces into substandard residential units”.

“According to the reports, developers are using a legal loophole – so-called Permitted Development Rights – to circumvent planning requirements and to convert office spaces into residential units which, because of their small size and lack of basic features, would under any other circumstances be deemed unfit for human habitation.

“We are sure you will agree that, if accurate, this situation is unacceptable and needs immediate attention.

“We ask you to urgently examine the claims in The Times and at your earliest opportunity to provide us with assurances about the steps you will be taking to ensure that no further such developments are taking place, and that developers will be required to improve residences already built under Permitted Development Rights which fall short of the standards we rightly expect of housing in the UK.”

More than 42,000 homes are said to have been created from commercial office conversions waved through via PDRs since 2015.

In his autumn budget last October, chancellor Phillip Hammond relaxed the rules governing PDRs, making it easier for developers to carry out such conversions, which critics have labelled little more than modern-day slums, claiming many homes created by PDRs do not meet minimum space standards and some have been found to have no access to natural light.