There's no escaping the bleak headlines about the decline of the British high street, with a recent report from the Centre for Retail Research stating that one in five of our high street stalwarts will be gone by 2018.

In an attempt to breathe life back into the market, Government brought into effect its new permitted development rights on the 30th May to make it easier for the use of properties to be changed in a more flexible way.

Office to residential - how will it work?
These planning reforms are set to be in place for three years and allow change of use from offices to residential without planning permission.

A prior notification procedure still needs to be gone through with some details of impacts on contamination, highways and flooding being required. It is still possible that if sufficient measures are not proposed to mitigate impacts on these issues (to be secured by s.106 agreement possibly) that the Council can refuse to give its approval; although this is not entirely clear. Truculent Councils that did not secure an exemption may test the water on this.