The government’s High Streets Task Force with Create Streets and Evolve Estates has unveiled a best practice guide for successful conversion of shops into liveable homes – as an alternative to the controversial permitted development rights.
The Permitting Beauty report sets out four alternative proposals for change of use of empty shops to much-needed homes. Chief among them is the use of design codes.
The report sets out a number of codes which it believes could be adopted at a local and regional level to ensure that change of use is undertaken properly and adds to a high street, rather than takes away.
The design codes (pp44-53 in the report) stipulate that any retail to residential conversion pays attention to the value of symmetry in its architecture, creates engaging facades, uses colour appropriately and – particularly relevant as a counter to the PDR conversions – ensures natural light at ground level.
Other proposals put forward in the report include a radical reform of VAT provisions to remove the incentive favouring new-build over re-use. The authors say government should make bringing derelict buildings back into use VAT free, or charge at most a reduced VAT of 5%.
They believe that such a move could provide a £15.1bn stimulus to the wider UK economy and would save 240,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
The report also proposes that government uses some of the £11bn it is investing to support new and greener homes for recycling empty shops into homes or offices. It suggests that portions of both the Green Homes Grant and Homes Building Fund could be extended to retail to residential conversions and that the Future High Streets Fund should put more focus on championing high-quality retail to residential conversions.
The final proposal in the report calls for the “liberalisation of the prior approval regime” through an investment in enforcement where necessary. It states that there should be more efficient management of conditions applications, of alterations and a greater probability of enforcement, and that minimum (£2,500) and maximum (£20,000) fines for breaches should be increased tenfold.
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