Office to residential developments providing ’poor quality housing’

Research co-led by UCL highlights the benefits and detriment to residential housing, along with the implications for public authorities and local communities, following a series of changes to permitted development rights. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has published a report, Extending Permitted Development Rights in England , looking at the effects of expanding the policy. Significant extensions to permitted development (PD) rights occurred in 2005, 2010, 2013 and 2015*. The outcome of these changes, means scores of building conversions are proceeding in England, without the need for full formal planning, impacting oversight and regulation. Commissioned by RICS, researchers from the UCL Bartlett School of Planning, examined five local authorities with high rates of permitted development (PD) schemes, namely Camden, Croydon, Leeds, Leicester and Reading. Site visits to 568 buildings found an inconsistency in the quality of developments, with only 30% of units delivered through permitted development meeting national space standards. While examples of extremely high-quality housing conversions had been found, there were also examples that had no amenity space, low quality design and were poor locations for residential amenity.