Illogical planning deregulation will make it harder to deliver affordable homes

So it is not good news that despite the fact that PDRs make it harder to get genuinely affordable homes built, the government now wants to expand this system further.

At the end of last year, the government released a consultation on expanding PDRs.

We and many others were very clear about exactly why it was a bad idea.

Yet the chancellor has announced that the expansion is going ahead, to include upward extensions of certain commercial and residential buildings, which may include blocks of flats.

“Surely few people can be fooled by the notion that deregulation on this scale is needed because of the scale of the housing crisis”

PDRs will also be granted to conversions of hot food takeaways into homes.

On top of this, the government hasn’t ruled out granting PDRs to the demolition of commercial buildings that get replaced as housing.

So we face the prospect of a building being knocked down and built back up with no requirement for the new development to comply with planning policy.

Surely few people can be fooled by the notion that deregulation on this scale is needed because of the scale of the housing crisis?

Yes, we are deep in a national emergency with 277,000 people currently recorded as homeless in England.

We desperately need more social homes, on an ambitious scale. This is why Shelter is campaigning for a bold plan to deliver 3.1 million new social rent homes over the next 20 years. The last thing we need is more shoddy, cramped, unsustainable private homes popping up in isolation from the communities that need new homes the most.

It is time to reverse the damage already done by get-out clauses, not increase it.

Our research estimated that the get-out clause from making affordable housing contributions has meant that between 2015/16 and 2017/18 urban authorities have lost out on more than 10,000 affordable homes, including social rent homes.

And the answer is emphatically not to include a social housing requirement in PDR developments.

A crucial report published last year for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors assessed the impacts of extending PDR to office-to-residential conversions. One of report’s key findings was that some of these housing schemes are of such a bad quality that they posed a risk to residents’ safety.

“There is no need to make it easier to make a quick buck out of people’s desperation to get onto the housing ladder”

We can assume that the government has at least picked up on these serious safety concerns – the chancellor has also announced that he will review PDR conversions of buildings to residential use, with regards to the quality of homes being delivered.

But it would be irresponsible to campaign for social housing to come through this system. The risk of potential residents living in poor quality and unsafe accommodation is too high.

It is not just Shelter who is opposed to the chancellor’s plans to expand PDRs. The Local Government Association, MPs who have signed an open letter against it, and even the real estate industry have all called on the government to reconsider urgently.

De-regulating the planning system is a knee-jerk ideological response. There is no need to make it easier to make a quick buck out of people’s desperation to get onto the housing ladder.

The government must rethink its priorities. Local planning authorities need the tools, powers and resources to facilitate the large-scale delivery of high-quality social housing that will address our national emergency.

Polly Neate, chief executive, Shelter