Empty offices to housing plan

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has laid out plans to allow vacant offices to be turned into new homes. Beyond the inherited economic conditions the Government believes one of the key barriers to increasing housing supply is the lack of land and buildings available for residential development or conversion.

Housebuilding hit a record low of 129 000 new homes last year, the lowest level in any peacetime year since 1924. The Government says only 2.8 per cent came from office conversions. This, it says, is at odds with the latest commercial vacancy rate of 7-9 per cent, which suggests there is an oversupply of commercial land.

oday Mr Pickles is publishing a consultation that proposes to scrap the planning approval requirement for changing use from a commercial property to a residential property, which can be costly and time consuming, so it is easier for developers to turn vacant offices into new homes. This would give office conversions permitted development rights.

Plans to bring empty commercial buildings back in to use to increase housing supply by deregulating the planning system were set out in the Budget's Growth Review. A wider review of the change of use rules, known as Use Classes Orders, and its interaction with permitted development rights will also be carried out to reduce the planning burden further.

Eric Pickles said: “Many towns and cities have office blocks, warehouse and business parks needlessly lying empty, while housebuilding has fallen to the lowest in peace time history because the planning system has tied developers up in knots of red tape. This change will make it easy to turn redundant offices into much needed homes. This will replace derelict properties with buildings in good use, contribute to relieving Britain’s housing shortage and give a valuable boost to the building industry.