Further Update
Following our recent post about future changes to Permitted Development, amendments to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 was published a few days ago. The changes below will all come into force on the 25th May 2019. The amendments are set out in The Town and Country Planning (Permitted Development, Advertisement and Compensation Amendments) (England) Regulations 2019.
They do not include the right to allow upward extensions.
On 13th March 2019, the Housing Secretary James Brokenshire published a written statement outlining the future reform and amendments to the General Permitted Development Order (GPDO). The changes to be introduced to the GPDO will affect both residential homes and commercial properties on the high street.
This is a summary of the main changes introduced by the upcoming revision to the GPDO:
Larger Home Extensions (Schedule 2, Part 1, Class A)
The Government is looking to make permanent the time-limited right to build larger homes extensions (single storey rear extension up to 6 or 8 metres) which was to expire on the 30th May 2019. Unfortunately, no announcement was made to clarify the date this new permanent right would come into force, which means that there might be a period of time after 30th May when larger homes extensions will not be possible.
It should be noted the payment of a fee to the Local Planning Authority will be required for the submission of an application for Prior Approval (currently fee-free).
Temporary change of use
The permitted development right allowing the change of use of a commercial property to a flexible use falling within Class A1/A2/A3 or B1 is to be reinforced and the temporary flexible change of use will be for a period of up to 3 years, instead of 2 years currently.
Creation of Offices (class B1a) on the high street
A new permitted development right will be created to allow shops (Class A1), financial and professional services (A2), hot food takeaways (A5), betting shops, pay day loan shop and launderettes to change use to an office (B1a).
Creation of Dwellings (Class C3)
While the creation of dwellings is already possible through the conversion of shops (Class A1) and Financial and Professional Services (Class A2), a new permitted development is proposed to be introduced to allow the change of use from Hot Food Takeaways (Class A5) to residential Use (Class C3).
It is likely that such change of use would also require the submission of a Prior Approval Application to ensure compliance with conditions to ensure of the acceptability of the change of use.
All four changes are likely to come into force this spring with the publication of amendments to the GPDO. A second amendment to the GPDO is also scheduled for the autumn to introduce additional permitted development rights as detailed below.
No official date was announced for the publication of these amendments to the GPDO and we will look for any further information regarding the publication and implementation of these new rights.
Upwards extension
The long awaited new permitted development right for upwards extensions will come into force later this year, as announced by the Chancellor and the Housing Secretary. It will apply to both commercial and residential buildings, with the objective to deliver additional homes.
Conditions are likely to limit the use of this new right as the upwards extension would need to “respect the design of the existing streetscape, while ensuring the amenity of neighbours is considered”.
Construction of new dwellings
The Government is consulting and considering the possibility of creating a new permitted development right to allow commercial buildings to be demolished. Should such a right be introduced it would facilitate the creation of dwellings and replace the current strategy of first using the property’s permitted development rights to convert it to residential, and then apply for full planning permission to demolish the existing structure and build new dwellings.
Article written by Thomas Tinel