Permitted development rights needed to keep high streets alive, Pincher says

Speaking at the summit today, Mr Pincher said: “I think what PDR does is to enable brownfield sites particularly to be more rapidly developed with controls to ensure that good accommodation can be provided in our towns and urban spaces. [It] can help revitalised some of those urban spaces – some of those urban high streets which otherwise wouldn’t be able to sustain business because there aren’t people using them.”

The minister said the government is doing it all it can to “get people living closer to or on high streets”.

Mr Pincher said PDR has resulted in roughly 72,000 new units since they were introduced in 2015. He noted that the government said it will make changes to the policy if needed and that is why it introduced a new minimum space standard last year.

In addition to PDR, Mr Pincher identified the build-to-rent sector as a key area of development in the coming years.

“It has been the biggest investment in build-to-rent on record in the first quarter of this year, which suggests that that may be a place where more development will be happening,” he said.

Later in his speech, Mr Pincher claimed that housing associations have “huge” role to play in development going forward and praised their work in supporting their tenants over the course of the pandemic.