The Housing and Planning Minister, Brandon Lewis, has today released an announcement that the permitted development rights to convert offices to residential, that were due to expire on 30 May 2016, will now be made permanent. Furthermore, under the new permitted development rights those sites that have prior approval for a change of use from offices to residential will now have three years within which to implement the change.
The Minister also set out plans to extend the prior approval rights to allow for the demolition of office buildings and their replacement with residential, and for the conversion of light industrial buildings and launderettes to new homes.
Further information on the altered permitted development rights will be published in due course, but this latest announcement serves to further underline the Government’s overriding drive to deliver more new homes.