Permitted development rights allowing for the conversion of offices (use class B1(a)) to residential use have been made permanent. Those rights were due to expire at the end of May 2016 but have been amended by the Government through the publication of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) Order 2016.
As was previously the case such conversions must first be subject to an application for ‘prior approval’ made to the Council, in which the Council will consider the transport impacts of the development, contamination risks and flood risk to the site. However, the amended permitted development rights have added a further matter for consideration, that being the impacts of noise from surrounding commercial development on the intended occupiers of the development.
A further change to the permitted development regime is that developers must specify the number of dwellings that will be created in the development as part of their application for prior approval.
Where prior approval is given developers will have three years to implement the conversion works from the date of approval.
If you have any queries with the amended permitted development rights then please do not hesitate to contact us.