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Planning applications no longer needed for brownfield sites as part of ‘radical changes’ announced by prime minister
Developers will no longer need to submit a “normal” planning application to build on brownfield sites as part of sweeping changes intended to aid the country’s economic recovery from coronavirus, the government has said.
Prime minister Boris Johnson announced the “most radical reforms of our planning system since the end of the Second World War” during his ‘Build, build, build’ speech in the West Midlands today.
Downing Street has since revealed that one of the changes will mean builders do not need to submit “a normal planning application to demolish and rebuild vacant and redundant residential and commercial buildings if they are rebuilt as homes”.
It also said a “wider range of commercial buildings will be allowed to change to residential use without the need for a planning application”, including shops which have shut down and become vacant during the pandemic.
Ministers intend to bring the major changes into effect by September through legislative reform in a bid to revive high streets and reduce the need to build on greenfield sites.
“We will build fantastic new homes on brownfield sites and other areas that with better transport and other infrastructure could frankly be suitable and right for development, and we will address that intergenerational injustice and help young people get on the housing ladder in the way that their parents and grandparents could,” Mr Johnson said.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told Inside Housing the measures would be delivered through changes to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015.
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Permitted development rights allow commercial and office buildings to be converted into housing without needing planning permission.
The rules were significantly expanded under then-communities secretary Eric Pickles in 2013 with the intention of boosting housebuilding – and around 100,000 homes have been delivered this way over the past five years.
However, critics of the policy say it allows developers to build homes well below space standards, remote from infrastructure or with insufficient natural light, as well as dodge affordable housing obligations.
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has previously voiced support for the concept of “permitted development in principle”, with developers required to work with councils to agree on details such as space standards, environmental standards and height.
The government said the new reforms will still require developers to “adhere to high standards and regulations, just without the unnecessary red tape” in line with its ‘Project Speed’ strategy.
Homeowners wanting to build new storeys on their properties will also be eligible for a “fast-track approval process”, while the Use Classes Order will be amended to allow, for example, retail buildings to be permanently turned into cafés or offices without needing council approval.
Mr Johnson also said the government will consider how it can use its own land more effectively and announced that a planning policy paper will be publish in July setting out a strategy for overhauling England’s planning system.
Jonathan Webb, a research fellow at left-leaning thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research, said loosening planning restrictions “puts the future delivery of affordable homes at risk and will accelerate the hollowing out of communities and the decline of the high street”.
Update: at 16.22pm 30/06/20 the story was updated to include more information about the legislative changes.
