The government risks further conflict with local authorities this week if, as expected, ministers reveal plans to allow shops to be converted to homes without planning permission. Councils are already unhappy with recent legislation allowing the conversion of offices to homes and are certain to resist a further erosion of their powers.
Nick Boles MP
The announcement will come from planning minister Nick Boles who will propose scrapping existing rules in the latest move to provide housing and bring empty commercial properties back into use. It comes a week after the latest figures revealed there are 7,000 shop units standing empty in London alone.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will ask councils to identify which shops should be classed as “prime retail frontage” while allowing permitted development rights for those where retail space is no longer in demand. Banks and building societies are also believed to be included in the proposal.
“People’s shopping habits are changing fast as a result of the rise in internet shopping and changes in lifestyles and working patterns.
“We need to think creatively about how to help town centres thrive in this new era.
“We want to encourage local councils to concentrate retail activity into prime shopping streets in the heart of their town centres and adopt a more relaxed approach to under-used retail frontages,” Boles said.
This will place the government on a collision course with local authorities who believe they should retain strategic control over planning decisions. Over 300 councils applied for exemption from the offices to homes legislation and Islington is currently preparing a legal challenge against the ruling.
“Central government is a poor place to make policy that affects local communities. It is local residents that should make decisions about how their neighbourhoods look and feel.
“The character and amenity of a neighbourhood should be negotiated locally,” said a spokesman for the Local Government Association (LGA).
The proposal has also been met with criticism from Mary Portas who conducted her own review of the high street for the government.
“People do still want their high street as a community place. If we lose that, it is going to be one of the greatest social crimes in our country,” she told the Sunday Times.
Nevertheless, Portas agrees that we need to look at alternative uses for retail units that are no longer in demand and that residential accommodation can be part of this. Other uses she suggests are schools, healthcare properties and meeting rooms.
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