Amendments in relation to home extensions:
"until 30th May 2016, for a dwellinghouse not on article 1(5) land nor on a site of
special scientific interest, the enlarged part of the dwellinghouse would have a
single storey and—
(i) extend beyond the rear wall of the original dwellinghouse by more than 8
metres in the case of a detached dwellinghouse, or 6 metres in the case of any
other dwellinghouse, or
(ii) exceed 4 metres in height"
SUBJECT TO certain pre-conditions, not normally associated with permitted development, which must be observed.
A formal letter must also be sent to the Local Planning Authority confirming that the work has been completed prior to 30 May 2016 - contact us for additional information

London leads councils seeking change-of-use opt out

London Mayor Boris Johnson has confirmed that he is seeking an exemption for much of central London from the government’s proposed new permitted development rights which would allow offices to be converted into homes without planning permission.

Planning authorities had until 22 February to apply to opt out of the new regime. Ministers have stressed this will only be allowed in "exceptional circumstances".

The Mayor is seeking exemptions for three defined areas in central London. The first is the Central Activities Zone, which includes the City of London, the South Bank and the West End. More than a third of London's jobs are within this area.

Johnson is also seeking exemptions for the commercial area north of the Isle of Dogs and London's enterprise zones in the Royal Docks, plus the part of the City Fringe in east London which makes up the emerging "Tech City" opportunity area.

Most other London borough councils have requested exemptions as has Manchester City Council for part of its city centre.

A spokesperson for DCLG said: "As with any informal or formal consultation, we are now considering the responses we have received. We will carefully analysis the arguments put forward and we will make a statement in due course."

New planning measures will ensure empty and underused offices can be swiftly converted into much-needed housing to make the most use out of previously developed land, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced today (24 January 2013).
The changes will make the best use of developed sites by allowing existing buildings to be quickly brought back into productive use. New permitted development rights will allow office space to be converted into new homes without the need for planning permission from the local authority.
This new change of use right will provide badly needed homes for local people and will make a valuable contribution to easing the national housing shortage. It will help create jobs in the construction industry and help regenerate our town centres by increasing footfall in high streets.
The permitted development right will be in place for 3 years, and because local circumstances vary, local authorities will have an opportunity to seek an exemption if they can demonstrate there would be substantial adverse economic consequences.
Further reforms will also help boost rural communities and create jobs by allowing agricultural buildings to be converted for other business uses without the need for planning permission.
Buildings no longer suitable or needed for agricultural use could be transferred into new growth-boosting ventures that benefit rural areas, such as shops, restaurants, small hotels and leisure facilities and offices, under new permitted development rights.
Town centre buildings will also be able to easily convert to help new shops, business start-ups and community projects keen to set up in high streets.
The new rules will allow a range of buildings to temporarily convert for up to 2 years and will speed up the process of bringing vacate high street buildings back into use.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said:
“We want to promote the use of brownfield land to assist regeneration, and get empty and under-used buildings back into productive use.
“Using previously developed land and buildings will help us promote economic growth, provide more homes and still ensure that we safeguard environmentally protected land.
“We are absolutely determined to support people striving to bring life back to their communities and high streets.”
Planning Minister Nick Boles said:
“These new changes ensure the very best use is made of our existing buildings to provide new homes and makes sure we get the most use we can out of our previously developed land.
“These changes are an important step in improving the planning system and making sure it is in the best possible shape to swiftly adapt to changes and opportunities that can provide a big boost to the economy.
“We are determined to make sure perfectly good underused properties are converted for homes and uses that will benefit our communities.”
The new measures for agricultural buildings will help rural businesses to diversify, say the Country Land and Business Association. Association President Harry Cotterell said:
“We are very pleased with this announcement. It is something for which we have campaigned for years. It offers farmers and land managers the chance to find alternative sources of income by using their redundant agricultural buildings in new ways. This will underpin their farming businesses and boost the rural economy by helping to create new jobs and businesses at a time when they are greatly needed.”
Further information
A consultation on relaxing change of use rules for commercial properties to residential was held in April 2011.
The new permitted development rights allow change of use from B1(a) office to C3 residential.
Local authorities can seek an exemption to the permitted development rights to convert offices into homes if there are justified economic grounds. The secretary of state will only grant an exemption in exceptional circumstances.
Agricultural buildings will be able to convert up to a specific size still being determined. There will be a prior approval process for conversions beyond that size to guard against unacceptable impacts, such as flooding, transport and noise.
The new permitted development rights for agricultural buildings do not allow conversion to residential dwellings.
The town centre uses that can convert temporarily for 2 years to other uses include shops (A1), financial and professional services (A2), restaurants and cafes (A3) and offices (B1).

Changes to planning charges in England will come into force on 22 November 2012, a letter to Chief Planning Officers from Government chief planner Steve Quartermain has confirmed.

The Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits Regulations have been agreed in both Houses of Parliament, consolidating 12 statutory instruments dating back to 1989 and introducing new levels of planning application fees which have been uprated by 15 per cent in line with inflation since 2008.

A landlord who unlawfully converted a house into nine flats has found himself £15,495 out of pocket after conviction at Enfield and Haringey Magistrates Court.

Andreas Antoniades, of Hornsey Park Road, first converted the house in Woodstock Road N8, into nine flats in 2011 without planning permission. The council asked him to return the property back into a single house later that year, which he did.

Subsequent inspections in 2012 found the house being re-converted into flats, in breach of an earlier enforcement notice. The owner was warned about this and said he would halt the conversions.

However, further site visits showed the property was being used again as nine flats which were being let at around £160 per week, prompting the prosecution.

At Enfield and Haringey Magistrates Court Antoniades pleaded guilty to breaching an enforcement order and was fined £13,500 with costs of £1,980 and victim surcharge of £15.

Councillor Nilgun Canver, cabinet member for the environment, said: "There are good reasons why landlords need to get permission before converting houses into flats. This can be because there are too many converted properties in a street, the property is not suitable for conversion or because there are other health, safety or social issues that need to be considered.”

The Planning Portal carried the following report:
"Joint action by enforcement officers from the London boroughs of Brent and Harrow has resulted in a landlord being fined more than £310,000 for creating 28 flats in four houses in breach of planning regulations.

A judge at Harrow Crown Court ruled that Vispasp Sarkari must pay £303,000 under proceeds of crime legislation and £7,515 for the planning breaches. The defendant was also ordered to pay more than £18,000 in legal costs

Sarkari, aged 50, of Ivanhoe Drive, in Harrow, must pay the penalty within six months or face three-and-a-half years in prison.

Harrow and Brent launched an investigation after Sarkari was convicted of putting four flats into a terraced house in Wembley. The case involved properties in a range of different locations.

Half of the money will go to HM Treasury, with the rest split between the two councils, Harrow and Brent Trading Standards, and the court collection agency.

Councillor Keith Ferry, Harrow Council’s Portfolio Holder for Planning and Enterprise, said: “I am delighted that we have been able to send out a clear message that we will not allow people to profit from illegal conversions.

"This landlord ignored planning rules designed to ensure that the quality of accommodation in the boroughs is maintained and that the environment for surrounding residents is protected. He ignored the council’s notices. As a result, he profited hugely from this sub-standard accommodation.”

More details to follow

The Department for Communities and Local Government published the NATIONAL PLANNING POLICY FRAMEWORK 27 March 2012 it is aimed at simplifying the planning process.
The immediate benefit is that it states
Annex 3: Documents replaced by this Framework
1. Planning Policy Statement: Delivering Sustainable Development (31 January 2005)
2. Planning Policy Statement: Planning and Climate Change – Supplement to Planning Policy Statement 1 (17 December 2007)
3. Planning Policy Guidance 2: Green Belts (24 January 1995)
4. Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (9 June 2011)
5. Planning Policy Statement 4: Planning for Sustainable Economic Growth (29 December 2009)
6. Planning Policy Statement 5: Planning for the Historic Environment (23 March 2010)
7. Planning Policy Statement 7: Sustainable Development in Rural Areas (3 August 2004)
8. Planning Policy Guidance 8: Telecommunications (23 August 2001)
9. Planning Policy Statement 9: Biodiversity and Geological Conservation (16 August 2005)
10. Planning Policy Statement 12: Local Spatial Planning (4 June 2008)
11. Planning Policy Guidance 13: Transport (3 January 2011)
12. Planning Policy Guidance 14: Development on Unstable Land (30 April 1990)
13. Planning Policy Guidance 17: Planning for Open Space, Sport and Recreation (24 July 2002)
14. Planning Policy Guidance 18: Enforcing Planning Control (20 December 1991)
15. Planning Policy Guidance 19: Outdoor Advertisement Control (23 March 1992)
16. Planning Policy Guidance 20: Coastal Planning (1 October 1992)
17. Planning Policy Statement 22: Renewable Energy (10 August 2004)
18. Planning Policy Statement 23: Planning and Pollution Control(3 November 2004)
19. Planning Policy Guidance 24: Planning and Noise (3 October 1994)
20. Planning Policy Statement 25: Development and Flood Risk (29 March 2010)
21. Planning Policy Statement 25 Supplement: Development and Coastal Change (9 March 2010)
22. Minerals Policy Statement 1: Planning and Minerals (13 November 2006)
23. Minerals Policy Statement 2: Controlling and Mitigating the Environmental Effects of Minerals Extraction In England. This includes its Annex 1: Dust and Annex 2: Noise (23 March 2005 - Annex 1: 23 March 2005 and Annex 2: 23 May 2005)
24. Minerals Planning Guidance 2: Applications, permissions and conditions (10 July 1998)
25. Minerals Planning Guidance 3: Coal Mining and Colliery Spoil Disposal (30 March 1999)
26. Minerals Planning Guidance 5: Stability in surface mineral workings and tips (28 January 2000)
27. Minerals Planning Guidance 7: Reclamation of minerals workings (29 November 1996)
28. Minerals Planning Guidance 10: Provision of raw material for the cement industry (20 November 1991)
29. Minerals Planning Guidance 13: Guidance for peat provision in England (13 July 1995)
30. Minerals Planning Guidance 15: Provision of silica sand in England (23 September 1996)
31. Circular 05/2005: Planning Obligations (18 July 2005)
32. Government Office London Circular 1/2008: Strategic Planning in London (4 April 2008)
33. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: Town and Country Planning (Electronic Communications) (England) Order 2003 (2 April 2003)
34. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: Planning Obligations and Planning Registers (3 April 2002)
35. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: Model Planning Conditions for development on land affected by contamination (30 May 2008)
36. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: Planning for Housing and Economic Recovery (12 May 2009)
37. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: Development and Flood Risk – Update to the Practice Guide to Planning Policy Statement 25 (14 December 2009)
38. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: Implementation of Planning Policy Statement 25 (PPS25) – Development and Flood Risk (7 May 2009)
39. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: The Planning Bill – delivering well designed homes and high quality places (23 February 2009)
40. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: Planning and Climate Change – Update (20 January 2009)
41. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: New powers for local authorities to stop‘garden- grabbing’ (15 June 2010)
42. Letter to Chief Planning Officer: Area Based Grant: Climate Change New Burdens (14 January 2010)
43. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: The Localism Bill (15 December 2010)
44. Letter to Chief Planning Officers: Planning policy on residential parking standards, parking charges, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure (14 January 2011)
Further detail will follow

From the Planning Portal www.planningportal.gov.uk

The Government has used the latest Budget statements to make a series of announcements about planning initiatives including proposals to give businesses an explicit role in neighbourhood-level planning, moves to accelerate the release of public sector land and the removal of the national brownfield target.

According to ‘The Plan for Growth’, a joint document prepared by the Treasury and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, ministers want businesses to “bring forward neighbourhood plans and implement planning frameworks, or to set up neighbourhood development orders”.

This would reduce the need for “additional planning consents, for example on a single or shared use industrial site or town centre”, explained the document.

The Government has stressed that business would need to work with and gain the agreement of the local community “and pass independent examination before neighbourhood plans or orders are formalised”.

The document said the nationally-imposed target for development on brownfield sites “had helped drive up land prices in certain areas and would increasingly limit the supply of new housing, which would harm first time buyers in particular”.

Ministers have stressed that this policy change would not affect the Government commitment to maintain the Green Belt, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) or other environmental designations.

On land auctions the Government is keen to see if it would be feasible for local authorities to auction sites with planning permission, owned either by the public sector or private landowners who want to participate.

Ministers explained that the Homes and Communities Agency will pilot elements of this starting later this year.

The Government has argued that land auctions would be a way of capturing a greater share of the land value uplift created by the granting of planning permission. The expectation is that this will work alongside the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

Ministers are also committed to introducing measures to streamline planning application and related consents, including a 12-month guarantee for the processing of all planning applications, including any appeals.

In addition the Government has indicated it will consult on proposals to make it easier to convert commercial premises to residential. This would mean that classes B1, B2 and B8 (business general, industrial and storage) could become class C3 (residential) without the need for change of use consent.

This is in line with recommendations from think tank The Policy Exchange which has just published a study - ‘More Homes: Fewer Empty Building’s – which makes the case for allowing vacant or under used retail, industrial and office space to be converted into housing.

Authors Alex Morton and Richard Ehrman argued that despite the current housing crisis, there were currently 266,000 vacant commercial units, many of which have outlived their usefulness.

Alex Morton said: “Relaxing the planning rules to make it easier to convert commercial property would encourage investment, increase regeneration and create large numbers of jobs.”

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has published the details of its new Affordable Homes Programme of investment, and invited Registered Providers to put forward proposals for £2.2bn of funding (out of the overall £4.5bn funding pot) for affordable housing during the 2011-15 Spending Review period.

The details are set out in a Framework document, co-produced with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), which sets out a step-by-step guide for providers who wish to apply, working alongside their local authority partners.

It outlines the changes in affordable housing provision being introduced for 2011-15, and how this new approach will meet the Government’s ambition to deliver up to 150,000 new homes over the next four years.

The new arrangements include the concept of “affordable rent” which is set to become an element in the affordable planning regime. This will require changes to current guidance as set out in Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 3 - Affordable housing. This is now out for consultation until 11 April 2011.

The Framework makes clear that proposals must meet local priorities, with pro-active discussions between local authorities and providers key to success. The HCA - through its enabling role - will act as a bridge between local authorities and providers to help deliver homes in line with local needs.

Any provider, offering value-for-money, can submit proposals. Existing consortium arrangements are expected to be maintained or expanded and larger providers are particularly encouraged to work with smaller, rural, specialist (e.g. supported housing) or community-based organisations in order to reflect local need.

Significantly, the way in which funding will now be allocated has changed. Unlike the previous funding model, providers are now being invited to submit proposals for delivery of affordable housing to the HCA for the entire four year period which will be managed through a flexible approach.

Pat Ritchie, chief executive of the HCA, said: “This new approach gives increased flexibilities for local authorities and providers to plan ahead and deliver much-needed affordable homes. At a time when funding is tight, this new way of operating will allow us to do more with less resources, but it will rely heavily on effective working partnerships, which is where the HCA will play a significant part.”

Housing Minister Grant Shapps said: “With some 4.5m people on social housing waiting lists, it’s clear that not only do we need more homes, but we also need a complete overhaul of the system, to one that offers much more flexibility than the current ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Additionally, the document outlines how the HCA will assess the bids, and how programme management will operate under the mode.

Last week the Mayor of London published the new Interim Edition of the Housing Design Guide. Since the London Plan and supplementary planning guidance notes are material to any planning application the standards now required will eventually impact on all residential developments. Detailed consideration of the Gross Internal Areas stated for differing types of accommodation which is in excesss of the usual starting must be had when investigating potential re-developments.

The full guide is available at http://www.lda.gov.uk/publications-and-media/publications/design-guide.aspx