The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (“DLHC”) has recently published a consultation on proposed changes to permitted development rights included in the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.

Various relaxations are suggested and the focus of this note is on the paper’s first point of discussion: permitted development rights that allow commercial buildings to change to residential use. High streets and town centres are increasingly diversifying by providing a greater mix of residential, commercial and leisure uses. The Government is looking to support the changing landscape by making existing permitted development rights more flexible.

Class MA permitted development rights (“PDR”) came into effect in August 2021 to provide for the change of use of premises in the Commercial, Business and Service use class (Use Class E) to residential. Class E includes a range of uses commonly found on the high street, from restaurants and shops to gyms and offices. This PDR effectively replaced the previous right to change from offices to residential, which among other things included no upper floorspace limit.  The Class MA PDR is subject to a number of limitations which DHLC want to open up to enable the creation of new homes in England that might otherwise have not come forward through a planning application.

The current cumulative floorspace limit in Class MA of 1500 square metres effectively allows the delivery of up to 20 two bed homes. DHLC are seeking views on whether to double the size cap to 3000 square metres or even have the floorspace limit removed altogether. There is also a suggestion to remove the three-month vacancy requirement, as it is believed this requirement might have the unintended effect of properties being left vacant for longer periods. 

While the PDR is permitted in conservation areas subject to prior approval, it does not apply in other sensitive areas such as National Parks, AONBs and World Heritage Sites. With the exclusion of World Heritage Sites, DHLC are looking to broaden the PDR so that it can be used in other protected areas. It is also important to note that the use of this PDR in conservation areas does not allow for any operational or building works to take place – this would still require a planning application. DHLC have also asked for views on how the prior approval process for this specific PDR is operating in practice, given that other rights are operating in conservation areas successfully without comparable safeguards.

Last but not by any stretch least, DHLC are proposing to allow the change of use of hotels, boarding houses or guest houses to dwellinghouses through permitted development rights, to be either delivered through an expansion to the Class MA right or through the creation of a new right. Specific safeguards would be put in place to allow for local consideration of the impacts the change of use would have, i.e., through a prior approval process. Any homes created under the right would be limited to use as a C3 dwellinghouse.