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Warnings over quality and affordable housing cuts as Johnson unveils ‘Project Speed’ plan
Warnings have been issued to the government over its plans to expand permitted development rights, with sector figures raising concerns about poor quality homes and developers dodging affordable housing obligations.
Council leaders and sector bodies have expressed reservations about the government’s decision, saying similar deregulation in the past has led to overcrowding and unsustainable development.
On Tuesday, prime minister Boris Johnson announced what he called the “most radical reforms of our planning system since the end of the Second World War” as part of the government’s ‘Project Speed’ strategy to help England’s economy bounce back from the pandemic.
Downing Street said the changes, set to come into effect in September, will mean developers are not required to gain “normal” planning permission to demolish and rebuild redundant residential or commercial buildings as new homes.
Darren Rodwell, executive member for housing and planning at London Councils, labelled the relaxation of planning rules a “disastrous move” that would lead to poorer-quality housing.
Catherine Ryder, director of policy and research at the National Housing Federation, pointed out that permitted developments are exempt from affordable housing contributions.
Alan Jones, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, said: “It is hard to reconcile the commitment to quality with expanding a policy that has delivered low-quality, unsustainable and over-crowded homes across England."
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Permitted development rights allow commercial and office buildings to be converted into housing without needing planning permission.
The rules were significantly expanded by then-communities secretary Eric Pickles in 2013 with the intention of boosting housebuilding – and around 100,000 homes have been delivered this way over the past five years.
However, critics of the policy say it allows developers to build homes well below space standards, remote from infrastructure or with insufficient natural light, as well as dodge affordable housing obligations.
Mark Ingall, leader of Labour-run Harlow Council, said: “I’m terribly concerned that what this means is permitted development two and more housing that exploits the housing crisis rather than solving the housing crisis.
“The last time the Tories amended planning regulations they brought in permitted development which brought in Terminus House, and Terminus House is an abomination for the residents that have to live there and for the town.
“I’m not ideologically opposed to repurposing housing but there’s no reason we shouldn’t go through planning to ensure things like minimum space standards.”
Terminus House, in Harlow, is an ex-office building converted into flats which are now used as temporary accommodation for homeless households and owned by a private firm.
The building was branded a “human warehouse” in national headlines last year, with some of the flats as small as 18 square metres and residents reporting feeling unsafe and afraid.
Conservative Harlow MP Robert Halfon told Parliament in February that permitted development rights have been “an unmitigated disaster” for the town. Speaking to Inside Housing yesterday Mr Halfon said he had already written about the issue of Terminus House to the housing minister, and is planning on raising it further in Parliament in the coming weeks
The government said on Tuesday that the new reforms will still require developers to “adhere to high standards and regulations, just without the unnecessary red tape”.
Fiona Howie, chief executive of the Town and Country Planning Association, said it was “totally unclear” how extending permitted development rights would help achieve the government’s stated aims of delivering beautiful, low-carbon homes and improving town centres.
She added: “Steam rolling over people’s views will be divisive and counterproductive. What we have heard from the government today is campaign rhetoric, not real leadership to enable meaningful change to tackle our health, housing and climate crises.”
David Renard, LGA housing and planning spokesman, said:"The current crisis, which has required a large proportion of the population to stay at home for extended periods of time has brought into sharp focus the relationship between health and housing quality.
"In order to ensure that developers build high quality homes in the locations that people need them, permitted development rules enabling buildings to be converted to homes without going through the planning system should be removed."
Tom Beattie, vice chair of the District Councils’ Network, said: “District councils and their local communities continue to grant 9 in 10 planning permissions, while tens of thousands of homes with planning permission remain unbuilt – the housing delivery system is broken, not the planning system.”
