Turning offices into homes? Planning, deregulation and changing the use of buildings in England

In England, it has been possible since May 2013 to convert a building from being an office into residential use without needing planning permission (as was previously required ever since 1948). This deregulation was a policy decision taken by central government, primarily to boost the supply of housing but also to help regeneration by reusing vacant office buildings. There have been more recent announcements about extending this ‘permitted development’ approach. The impact assessment for the policy change published in 2013 predicted that there would not be any financial costs from the change, that it was unlikely it would lead to housing in unsustainable locations, and that the planning system was the only reason that there were vacant office buildings in areas of housing demand. Informed by new empirical research which extended existing work on this controversial topic, we provide evidence that disputes most of the claims made by government. Drawing on case study visits in Camden, Croydon, Leeds, Leicester and Reading, interviews with a full range of stakeholders, analysis of plans and schemes, and a survey of residents, the paper argues that the policy is delivering far fewer homes than has been suggested, is delivering generally poor quality housing, and is not making a financial contribution to local communities to provide the necessary infrastructure to support additional residents. There is also evidence from comparisons with Glasgow and Rotterdam that the policy change was not necessary in the first place. Overall, it is suggested that voluntary approaches to regulation in the built environment lead to a general lowering of standards and that the state has an important role to play in maintaining housing and place quality