... A FORUM TO STIMULATE DEBATE ... ... JUST ADD A COMMENT AT ANY ENTRY BELOW... ... FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF TOWN AND VALLEY ...

Friday 16 November 2018

Is turning shops into homes the best way to save our high streets? >>> "Deregulation in pursuit of numbers"

Would turning shops and offices into housing 'save the High Street'?
Futures Forum: Is turning shops into homes the best way to save our high streets?

The government's got a new consultation out following the Budget:
Planning reform: supporting the high street and increasing the delivery of new homes - GOV.UK
Planning reform: supporting the high street and increasing the delivery of new homes | Planning Resource

It's all about 'permitted development' rights:

Government proposes freedom to demolish offices for homes as part of PD rights shake-up

29 October 2018 by Michael Donnelly

BUDGET 2018 The government has proposed introducing new permitted development (PD) rights allowing commercial buildings to be demolished and redeveloped as housing and high street properties to be converted to other uses.


Government proposes freedom to demolish offices for homes as part of PD rights shake-up | Planning Resource

But not everyone's convinced it will help:

Budget PD right changes may 'condemn desperate people to live in badly designed boxes'

1 November 2018 by Michael Donnelly

New proposals to extend permitted development (PD) rights that were announced in this week's Budget could deprive councils of 'essential funding' and 'condemn desperate people to live in badly designed boxes', the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has warned.


Budget PD right changes may 'condemn desperate people to live in badly designed boxes' | Planning Resource
Town and Country Planning Association | Press release: Expansion of permitted development is a threat to vulnerable people


Government policy undermines everything ministers say about beautiful homes

By Julia Park

12 November 2018

Julia Park unpicks the paradoxes in government thinking on housing

If, like me, you already find permitted development rights thoroughly confusing, look out, because it just got worse. Apart from confirming the extension of Help to Buy and expanding stamp duty exemptions to shared ownership, the only new thing the Autumn Budget had to offer for housing was more PD.

A consultation, Planning Reform: Supporting the High Street and Increasing the Delivery of New Homes, was launched alongside the budget. It’s an odd title for a document that also covers disposal of local authority land, CPO powers for new town development corporations and a consent order for work to listed waterway structures.

New PD rights are, however, the main item. The opening paragraph of the consultation boasts that 18,900 new homes were created through PD in 2016-17 alone. It’s very disappointing that the worst of the office-to-residential conversions we’ve seen and heard so much about recently seem not to have had any impact on the government’s aims, or even its conscience. It’s still all about deregulation in pursuit of numbers.


Government policy undermines everything ministers say about beautiful homes | Opinion | Building Design
.
.
.

No comments: