Changes to permitted development rights (PDR) in England, has led to the creation of “slum housing and rabbit hutch flats”, according to the Labour Party. Shadow housing secretary John Healey said the permitted development rule was being used to avoid providing affordable housing.

In 2013, the government changed planning rules to allow developers to turn offices, warehouses and industrial buildings into residential developments without needing planning permission from the local council, in a bid to increase housebuilding. Since 2013 permitted development rules have relaxed further, leading to 42,000 new homes being adapted from office spaces.

However, citing research by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), stating that PDR has resulted in small and extremely poor-quality housing, Healey explained that scrapping the policy “will give local people control over the housing that gets built in their area and ensure developers build the low-cost, high-quality homes that the country needs.”

Planning must be properly funded if permitted development is scrapped, says FMB
If a future Labour Government was to scrap commercial to residential permitted development it must also come forward with proposals to properly resource our chronically underfunded planning system, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Responding to the announcement by Healey, Brian Berry, chief executive at the FMB, said: “If Labour is going to put more strain on the planning system by scrapping commercial to residential permitted development, it must also think carefully about how planning will be resourced. Small and medium-sized house builders cite the planning process as the third greatest barrier to them increasing their delivery of new homes. Planning departments are chronically underfunded and we can’t ask them to do more without providing them with additional funding.”