Well its the start of a new month and what better way to start than to discuss the current changes to make it easier to convert commercial into residential premises.
Just a bit of context- there is a housing shortage in this country. Local authorities are seeing their funding squeezed by central Government. Whilst statistics from the Government's Funding for Lending scheme (FL), have shown an improvement in lending, there still isn't enough money to go around. Whence the changes!
The current changes will mean that a change from class B1 (a) Office to Class C3 Residential will count as 'permitted development.' In other words, you will not need planning permission to convert an office building into a house.
Councils will only be able to resist a change in exceptional circumstances. They will have to show that a change of use would result in a detrimental loss of economic activity for the area and that the negatives far outweigh the positives (in changing from commercial to residential premises).
Thus, Lawyers should be aware of the change. Indeed, they should plan for it! (If you'll excuse the pun...).
In my opinion (which may not count for much in the grand scheme of things!) I think that the change should work both ways. If for whatever reason, there are empty residential premises, then it should be easier to convert them into offices without planning permission.
The Government frequently states that it wants as much flexibility in the planning system as possible. The powers that be have cut more than a few pages. They have made the above change. Now they could go a step further- make it easier to convert empty houses into offices. That would encourage businesses to expand. Business expansion= economic growth. Economic growth= a happy Government.
See my LinkedIn profile at: http://proplawyer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/collective-enfranchisement-hosebay-saga.html for further information on the author.
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