Permitted development ‘threat to desperate people’
The Town and Country Planning Association has said the government’s proposals to expand permitted development for upwards extensions threaten desperate people and local authority provisions.
The government consultation into extended PD was unveiled as part of Budget 2018 announcements.
Under the plans, extensions above commercial and residential property will avoid the need for planning permission and requirements for contributions towards affordable housing and local infrastructure through section 106 and community infrastructure levy contributions.
The Town and Country Planning Association has said the government’s proposals to expand permitted development for upwards extensions threaten desperate people and local authority provisions.
The government consultation into extended PD was unveiled as part of Budget 2018 announcements.
Under the plans, extensions above commercial and residential property will avoid the need for planning permission and requirements for contributions towards affordable housing and local infrastructure through section 106 and community infrastructure levy contributions.
The TCPA said this development would create poor living conditions and deprive local communities of essential funding.
Hugh Ellis, interim chief executive of the TCPA, said: “Converting commercial and disused high-street properties into homes is fine, so long as it doesn’t condemn desperate people — often young people or poor families — to live in badly designed boxes without consideration for their health and wellbeing.
“Under the existing system of permitted development, 1,000 new flats can be built in an old 1970s office building or industrial estate, and the local council can’t require a single sq ft of play space for the children who live there — and the communities have effectively no say. This cannot become the norm.”
Ellis said town centre redevelopment required investment in culture and the built environment. He added: “How can we pay for this investment when permitted development removes the power of local authorities to get one penny in section 106 contributions from developers?”
A report from RICS released in May found that local authorities have lost £10.8m in funding and 1,667 affordable housing units to permitted development.
At the Labour conference in September, the shadow ministry for planning and local government launched a planning commission to scrutinise the current “developer led” system.
The committee includes members from the NHF, TCPA, CPRE, BPF, RICS, Planning Officers Society, LGA, RIBA and British Land, alongside two residents and a councillor, who will meet on a monthly basis.
The TCPA will publish findings from the Raynsford Review, its 18-month review of the planning system, later in the autumn.
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