Ministers to allow shops and offices to become new homes in planning shake-up

The Housing Secretary today announced that every council in England will have to prioritise brownfield developments and be more flexible and less restrictive in getting spades in the ground.

Big city councils will be given a “much higher” bar for refusing developments if they are failing to hit their locally-agreed house building targets.

Officials said that red tape will also be cut to convert commercial buildings into thousands more homes in London and major urban areas.

This will see the Government introduce legislation to extend development rights so that commercial buildings of any size, such as shops or offices, will have the freedom to be converted into “thousands” of new homes by 2030.

Alongside these proposals ministers will launch a consultation to ease planning restrictions on new extensions and large loft conversions for existing homes.

“Today marks another important step forward in our Long-Term Plan for Housing, taking a brownfield first approach to deliver thousands of new homes where people want to live and work, without concreting over the countryside.

“Our new brownfield presumption will tackle under delivery in our key towns and cities – where new homes are most needed to support jobs and drive growth,” said Mr Gove.

Mark Allan, Chief Executive, Landsec, said: “Landsec has been campaigning to unlock more economic growth, more homes and more jobs by refocusing national planning policy on the opportunities provided by brownfield urban regeneration.

“The emphasis on maximising housing development in urban areas set out today means that we can seize some of those opportunities, deliver more homes and secure better outcomes for cities and the people who live there.”

David Thomas, Chief Executive, Barratt Developments “We welcome any efforts to make it easier to get planning permission, particularly for brownfield regeneration which is already naturally a more complicated and capital-intensive process.

“Industry and local and national government need to work together to find ways of delivering more new homes more quickly, including on previously developed land, and this is a positive step.”