Permitted development homes “uninhabitable” for the future

Future conversions include plans for 250 flats in Croydon’s ‘50p Building’ and the conversion of a Dell EMC office into 206 flats. But several applications have been refused for reasons of fire safety and highway impact, while some London councils are seeking to limit conversions.

Councillors from Bradford to Harlow have expressed anxiety over the quality of housing created under permitted development, with concerns ranging from overcrowding to a lack of outdoor space, transport and social infrastructure. Housing does not need to meet building regulations where there is a ‘material change of use’. 

In addition, many have expressed fears about fire safety due to overcrowding. Jackson Caines, Housing Campaigner & Community Organiser at Harrow Law Centre, has heard conditions described as "worse than prison." Caines says that a surveyor visiting Krissh House found a defective automatic fire detection system and a blocked escape route. "In my experience, permitted developments tend to attract unscrupulous landlords who provide a poor service to tenants."

Jordi López Botey, Economic Justice Campaigns and Programme Lead at Health Justice charity Medact, has conducted visits to some permitted development blocks and interviewed households: "Lack of space, poor ventilation/condensation, natural light, overheating, fire risks, mould and damp and insecure tenancies were some of the common issues observed. All of these raise very serious health concerns."

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has described some homes developed through Permitted Development as “slums of the future”. The TCPA has called on government to amend or bring forward new legislation to improve housing standards and has called for legally binding Healthy Homes standards be applied to all housing.

“We’ve been shocked by the condition of former office blocks and out of town industrial buildings converted through permitted development rights,” Dr Rosalie Callway, Projects and Policy Manager, TCPA has said. “The poor quality of many of these conversions reflect the lack of strong and clear standards, with many people living in damp, cramped, noisy, unsafe and isolated properties.”

The Local Government Association has also called for Permitted Development for office-to-residential to be scrapped to “ensure all conversions and new developments contribute to the delivery of desperately needed affordable homes across the country.” OpenDemocracy has estimated that at least 25,000 affordable homes have not been built due to the introduction of permitted development rights.

While the reuse of buildings is widely welcomed, there is industry support for some regulation to ensure these homes are fit for habitation.

“In a country experiencing a severe housing shortage and increasing residential property values, conversion to residential is an obvious consideration which the Government has facilitated through various regulatory relaxations… but the buildings need to be fundamentally suitable for such conversions,” says Tony Mulhall, Senior Specialist in Planning & Development at RICS.

“The residential standards applied need to ensure we don’t create problems in the future, especially with increasing temperatures predicted,” adds Mulhall. “For developers relying on permitted development rights to convert, [regulation] would draw them back into the planning permission regime – something they would probably wish to avoid.”

The government introduced minimum space standards for permitted developments and other rules including provisions for natural light in 2021 after its own report found that 77% of conversions did not meet national space standards and that some homes created had no windows.