The LGA said
councils want to work with the Government to tackle the housing shortage and
ensure new housing meets the needs of communities.
As part of this, it
is calling on permitted development rules to be scrapped and local communities
to be allowed to have a vital say on new developments in their area.
Communities have
potentially lost out on more than 13,500 desperately-needed affordable homes in
the past four years as a result of rules allowing offices to be converted into
housing without planning permission, new analysis by the Local Government Association
reveals.
In some parts of the
country, office conversions carried out under the permitted development right –
which allows homes to be created without going through the planning system –
amount to almost half of all new housing.
This means
communities have no way to ensure developers meet high quality standards,
provide any affordable homes as part of the development or ensure supporting
infrastructure such as roads, schools and health services are in place.
As a result,
councils have serious concerns about the quality, design and safety of housing
converted under permitted development, as well as the location of new homes.
The LGA said
councils want to work with the Government to tackle the housing shortage and
ensure new housing meets the needs of communities. As part of this, it is
calling on permitted development rules to be scrapped and local communities to
be allowed to have a vital say on new developments in their area.
Latest figures show
that since 2015, there were 54,162 new homes converted from offices under
permitted development in England.
The LGA estimates
this has potentially led to the loss of 13,540 affordable homes.
While the total
conversions amount to 6 per cent of all new homes nationally, in some areas a
significantly high proportion of new housing is office-to-residential
conversions.
Last year (2018/19),
more than half (51 per cent) of all new homes in Harlow were office
conversions, with 48 per cent in Norwich and 43 per cent in Three Rivers.
Over a third of new
housing in Spelthorne (39 per cent) and Slough (35 per cent) were also
converted from offices.
Cllr David Renard,
the LGA’s housing spokesman, said: “Serious concerns remain over the high
numbers of homes which continue to be converted from offices without planning
permission.
“Permitted
development rules are resulting in the alarming potential loss of thousands of
desperately-needed affordable homes.
“Planning is not a
barrier to house-building, with councils approving nine in 10 planning
applications. It is vital that councils and local communities have a voice in
the planning process and are able to oversee all local developments.
“By scrapping
permitted development rules, the Government can give councils and local
communities the ability to shape the area they live in and ensure homes are
built to high standards with the necessary infrastructure in place.”
