Ben Clifford, Adam Dennett, Bin Chi and Daniel Slade outline

some of the key findings of research on the likely impacts of

the latest expansion of permitted development rights

Chi, Bin

Clifford, Ben

Dennett, Adam

Slade, Daniel

English

UCL Discovery

Town & Country Planning July/August 2021 235our vulnerable high streets – death by permitted development?Ben Clifford, Adam Dennett, Bin Chi and Daniel Slade outline some of the key findings of research on the likely impacts of the latest expansion of permitted development rights Local shops and other commercial buildings are crucially important to the wellbeing of communities. Lively, useful and safe town centres and high streets matter. They are the hearts of our towns and cities – they are where we go to socialise, buy groceries, or access important support services. Neighbourhood corner shops, too, are crucially important resources, especially for those without access to transport. But in recent years high streets across England have been ravaged by the rise of online retailing and the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic. In response, the government has made bold claims about ‘reinvigorating’ them, ‘levelling up’ ‘left-behind’ places, and ‘building beautiful’. But at the same time as making these claims the government has also stripped away councils’ ability to shape their local places, or ensure that new homes are fi t to live in. It has done this by expanding permitted development rights (PDR) which allow buildings of various types to be converted into homes without full planning permission. The dreadful consequences for residents’ and neighbours’ health and wellbeing of delivering homes through PDR are now well established.1-4 It is for good reason that such developments have been described as ‘slums of the future’.5 Despite this, on 1 August the government expanded permitted development rights to cover the vast majority of commercial buildings, introducing a new Class MA use class to include the whole of Class E (shops, offi  ces, restaurant, cafés, health services, nurseries, gyms, and leisure). For the fi rst time it will be possible for landlords to convert almost all of such premises into homes without having to apply for full planning permission. The value of residential development is so high that in many places there will be huge incentives for landlords to do this, and some high streets will be gutted as a result. What has not yet been examined is the likely scale of the change across England. How many shops might we lose as result of the government’s changes to planning? This is the question that TCPA-commissioned research conducted at University College London considered. As there is no national dataset categorically placing each unit or building into a planning use class, the research adopted a novel methodology, using datasets from the Ordnance Survey (primarily Points of Interest data – a location-based directory of all publicly and privately owned businesses, education and leisure services in Britain, categorised into 621 diff erent types) and from the Valuation Offi  ce Agency (providing fl oorspace information for all premises liable for business rates) in order to understand the extent of impacts that could result from commercial-to-residential changes of building use under the ‘old’ PDR policy (in force until 31 July 2021) and under the ‘new’ policy (in force from 1 August 2021) in each of the four case study areas. The results of the research study are truly shocking. Examining four case study areas representing diff erent types of built environment across England – Barnet, Crawley, Huntingdonshire, and Leicester – it found that 80.3% of shops and other commercial buildings could in theory be lost to residential conversion.6 This fi gure is as high as 89% for Barnet. In Leicester and Crawley it stands at 77%, and in Huntingdonshire 75%. The full research report7 contains a series of maps which demonstrate the huge potential impacts on neighbourhoods in each of these places. In some neighbourhoods, entire high streets run the risk of being converted into housing. While it is unlikely that all of these commercial premises will be converted to housing, clearly, anywhere near this reduction in such premises – whether shops, cafés, restaurants, gyms, nurseries, or day centres – would rip the heart out of our communities. Planning policy can no longer manage this change. And once shops have been converted into homes, they are extremely diffi  cult to convert back.Additional impacts The impact of PDR across the country runs beyond this immediate loss of local shops and services, damaging though that is. There are potential negative multiplier eff ects associated with the fragmentation of high streets that could aff ect remaining businesses: essentially there is a collective gravitational pull for high streets, agglomeration eff ects which are stronger when shops cluster. As high streets become pockmarked and fragmented with housing, footfall in remaining shops may diminish, further threatening their viability. More widely, there is nothing to stop new shops being delivered through PDR in cheap but unsustainable, car-dependent, out-of-town locations. And it is not just shops and services that will be aff ected by the 1 August changes: as increasing numbers of offi  ces and industrial units are converted under the new rules, employment opportunities will be lost as well. This may undermine local economies and leave people having to make unsustainable commutes to get to work. Some councils have been so concerned about this that they have bought offi  ce parks to stop them being converted into houses.8Town & Country Planning July/August 2021236The potential impact of PDR policy on Golders Green in the London Borough of Barnet© Crown copyright and database rights [2021] Ordnance Survey (100025252)Railway stationRailway lineA and B roads Minor roadDomestic and unclassifi ed buildingsNon-domestic buildingsNon-domestic buildings (fl oorspace unknown) Non-domestic buildings that could be converted to residential (old policy)Non-domestic buildings that could be converted to residential (new policy)The government’s rationale – and its shortcomings The government claims that these changes to the planning rules are needed because a) there is a housing crisis and we need to build more homes, and b) with the widespread switch to online retailing there is an excess of retail space. Converting shops into homes therefore makes sense. While it is true that there is a need for more homes and for many high streets to evolve if they are to thrive, any resulting conversions should be made through the planning system. Indeed, there is nothing to stop the government from encouraging councils to use this route more often through policy and other incentives. Delivering conversions through the planning system, and not PDR, off ers crucial advantages:• Conversions could be made in a way that does not undermine the viability of the remaining shops and ensures that communities have the services that they need.• Local people and councillors would continue to have a say on the future of their high streets.• Planners would be able to ensure that new homes from conversions are high quality, healthy, and safe.• Planners could ensure that new homes converted from shops and offi  ces are attractive and fi t well into the local area.• Councils could collect funding from developers to be used to provide the infrastructure (such as new schools, GP practices, play areas, bus lanes, etc.) that is necessary to support new residents and ensure that existing residents do not have to endure the adverse consequences of new development. Unlike developments which go through the full planning system, those secured through PDR do not need to provide such funding.Town & Country Planning July/August 2021 237The potential impact of PDR on Leicester city centre© Crown copyright and database rights [2021] Ordnance Survey (100025252)A and B roads Minor roadDomestic and unclassifi ed buildingsNon-domestic buildings (fl oorspace unknown)Non-domestic buildings that could be converted to residential (old policy)Non-domestic buildings that could be converted to residential (new policy)Non-domestic buildings The government also claims that a rule whereby shops and services must be vacant for three months before they can be converted into homes through PDR will prevent otherwise viable businesses being lost. However, there are concerns that three months is not long enough, and will simply incentivise property-owners to leave their buildings vacant for this period in order to make them eligible.9 Local authorities can, technically, issue Article 4 Directions to block PDR conversions where they would be particularly damaging to the local area. However, the Secretary of State has been extremely resistant to granting such directions, requiring them to be very limited in scope, and has recently published a Written Ministerial Statement making clear that he intends to limit their use even further in the future.10The case for a Healthy Homes Act The further expansion of PDR amounts to a massive centralisation of planning powers, and further undermines local democracy, leaving little opportunity for communities to have any say on changes to their built environment. We already know about the impacts of existing PDR on the quality of new homes and the wellbeing of residents. But this research reveals the potential scale of the impact of extended PDR on high streets. Communities in towns, cities and villages across the country may be left without services vital to their health and wellbeing. Following an extensive inquiry into the consequences of delivering homes through PDR, the cross-party House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee has called for the government to: ‘pause any further extensions of permitted development rights for change of use to residential, including the new class MA right, which is due to take eff ect on 1 August, and conduct a review of their role within the wider planning system.’ 9 It seems unlikely that the government will do so, given its ongoing commitment to delivering homes through PDR, even in the face of strong criticism from across the sector and the existence of better, alternative routes for delivering the housing that is actually needed by society. Given the commitment to market routes to deliver housing, one alternative is for the government is to adopt a robust, binding series of principles and underlying standards which would guarantee that all new homes would a) support the health and wellbeing of their residents, and b) positively contribute to their local environment. This is what the TCPA and Lord Nigel Crisp have been campaigning for in the form of a Healthy Homes Bill.11 If passed into law as a Healthy Homes Act, it would transform not just the quality of new homes delivered through PDR, but the entire way in which the built environment is regulated in England, shifting it from harm mitigation to the active promotion of health and wellbeing. • Dr Ben Cliff ord is with the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, Dr Adam Dennett and Bin Chi are with the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, and Daniel Slade is Policy and Projects Manager at the TCPA. The views expressed are personal.Notes1 B Cliff ord, P Canelas, J Ferm, N Livingstone, A Lord and R Dunning: Research into the Quality Standard of Homes Delivered through Change of Use Permitted Development Rights. University College London/University of Liverpool, for Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Jul. 2020. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_ data/fi le/902220/Research_report_quality_PDR_homes.pdf2 B Cliff ord, J Ferm, N Livingstone and P Canelas: Assessing the Impacts of Extending Permitted Development Rights to Offi  ce-to-Residential Change of Use in England. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, May 2018. www.rics.org/globalassets/rics-website/media/knowledge/research/research-reports/assessing-the-impacts-of-extending-permitted-development-rights-to-offi  ce-to-residential-change-of-use-in-england-rics.pdf3 J Ferm, B Cliff ord, P Canleas and N Livingstone: ‘Emerging problematics of deregulating the urban: The case of permitted development in England’. Urban Studies, 2021, Vol. 58 (10), 2040-58. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00420980209369664 R Marsh, M Chang and J Wood: ‘The relationship between housing created through Permitted Development Rights and health: a systematic review’. Cities & Health, published online 12 Nov. 2020. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/ 10.1080/23748834.2020.1833281?journal-code=rcah205 T Copley: Slums of the Future: Permitted Development Conversions in London. London Assembly Labour, May 2019. www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/fi les/slums_of_the_future_-_permitted_development_conversions_in_london_by_tom_copley_am.pdf6 Under the PDR rules up to 31 Jul. 2021, introduced over several years since 2013, 60.1% of shops and other commercial buildings across the case study areas could be lost. This is itself a shockingly high fi gure7 The full report, B Cliff ord, A Dennett and B Chi: Mapping Class E: Understanding the Expansion of Permitted Development. University College London, for TCPA, Aug. 2021, can be found at www.tcpa.org.uk/2021-pdr-research, along with a summary TCPA Research Briefi ng8 D Price: ‘Hertfordshire County Council invests almost £14m into 60,000sq ft offi  ce block development in Waltham Cross’. HertsLive, 1 Mar. 2020. www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/news/hertfordshire-news/hertfordshire-county-council-invests-28m-39030889 Permitted Development Rights. HC 32. Third Report of Session 2021-22. Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee. House of Commons, Jul. 2021. https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/6896/documents/72563/default/10 R Jenrick: Revitalising High Streets and Town Centres. Written Ministerial Statement UIN HCWS145, 1 Jul. 2021. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-07-01/hcws14511 See the Health Homes Act Campaign pages on the TCPA website, at www.tcpa.org.uk/pages/category/healthy-homes-actTown & Country Planning July/August 2021238

Our vulnerable high streets – death by permitted development?

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Our vulnerable high streets – death by permitted development?

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