A new housing bill published on the 13th of October allows developers to convert laundrettes to homes without planning permission. Housing Minister Brandon Lewis announced the changes to permitted development rights (PDR) as part of a housing and planning bill. The PDR changes – which also allow old office blocks to be knocked down and rebuilt rather than just converted from the original building – are designed to encourage thousands of new homes to be built.
First introduced in May 2013, the recent expansion of the PDR rules will also enable the change of use of light industrial buildings to new homes. Some London councils originally took Government to the High Court to block the measures but nearly 4,000 PDR applications were still approved between April 2014 and June this year.
However, these rights were set to expire on 30 May 2016 – potentially introducing a new raft of red tape and bureaucracy that could have hampered the conversion of office buildings and slowed down the delivery of thousands of new homes.
Now these permitted development rights will be made permanent and those that already have permission will have three years in which to complete the change of use – ending potential uncertainty for developers.
Most authorities with lots of launderettes are currently exempt
Figures suggest that over 550 launderettes still remain in major English cities, with 422 in London alone. With washing machine ownership reaching saturation point – at 97% in 2012, up from 95% in 2005 – demand for launderettes has obviously fallen.
However, Andrew Teacher, director at Blackstock Consulting, says that building millions of homes is going to require slightly more wholesale changes – such as unlocking the green belt. He adds: “Converting launderettes into flats is unlikely to clean up the country’s housing problems. But the government’s wider plans to extend rules allowing old office blocks to be revamped into housing are a welcome piece of the puzzle.
“The reality is that for any real dent to be made on Britain’s housing crisis, wholesale changes are needed. Using the green belt, reducing the unnecessary number of councils we have in London and using state funds to build homes are all things this government would never even consider. Yet they are precisely the sorts of things David Cameron should look at if his housing crusade is to be anything more than a paper boat in the bath.”
According to Blackstock Consulting the ten councils with the largest number of launderettes when last counted (2010) were; Liverpool (28), Manchester and Salford (28), Hackney (27), Brent (26), Newham (26), Wandsworth (25), Westminster (24), Barnet (22), Ealing (22) and Camden (21).
However, most of these local authorities are currently exempt from PDR.
Local authorities get further exemption time
There are areas in 17 local authorities in England consisting of individual buildings, roads or zones that are currently exempt from the rights, including:
- The City of London
- The London Central Activities Zone, which covers parts of the boroughs of Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Westminster, Newham, and Kensington and Chelsea
- Areas in the borough councils of Stevenage, and Ashford (Kent)
- Areas in the district councils of Sevenoaks and East Hampshire
- ManchesterCity Centre
Those areas that are currently exempt from the office to residential permitted development rights will have until May 2019 to make an Article 4 direction if they wish to continue determining planning applications for the change of use.
However, the rights to allow for demolition of offices and new build as residential use will still be subject to limitations and prior approval by the local planning authority, as will the development rights for the change of use of light industrial buildings and launderettes to residential use.
Where did the workers go?
Critics fear that the extended PDR will simply accelerate the hollowing out of London, speeding up the process of suburbanisation that is fast leaving the capital with no affordable places to work.
Mike Kiely, chairman of the board of the Planning Officers Society, which has been opposed to the permitted development right for some time, said that in some cases it has resulted in low-quality housing coming forward. He said: “Residential is clearly important but so are jobs and this is not targeted at vacant offices in any sense whatsoever. We have experience of occupied offices being given notice to quit in order to bring this forward. We are going to run into a problem of affordable office space before very long.”
However, David Brown, planning director at consultancy GL Hearn, told Planning Resource that the change “could be a very big deal”, adding “if you are no longer bound by old, almost redundant office blocks that you have to convert and work around, it provides a great opportunity to put something back that’s better, more attractive, more efficient, providing the kind of homes that I guess government would want to come through as part of this initiative.”
