Newington Local chart the recent history and adoption of Article 4 Directions to remove permitted development rights, their imminent extension in Manchester, and the possible implications of Labour’s new policy to remove them entirely.
Since 2013, developers in England seeking to convert office space into residential use have been able to do so without planning permission through permitted development rights. This was initially as a temporary measure to help kickstart the development of new homes, but it was subsequently made permanent, meaning most office to residential schemes don’t have to go through the full planning process. However, there are increasing signs that more local councils are pushing back on this, concerned at the loss of key employment space, and the effect this may have on the vitality of town and city centres.
Under the current permitted development rights, there is a clear presumption in favour of office-residential conversions, and once a developer gives notice of a scheme, the local council is only able to consider very limited matters around highways and transport impact, contamination and flood risks, and the potential for noise and disruption. However, local councils are increasingly concerned that relatively modern or otherwise adaptable office space in places where demand for it exists may be lost.
The principal way local councils have sought to gain more control over office to residential conversions is through the adoption of Article 4 Directions. These remove the permitted development rights and require any scheme to go through the full planning process, where the protection of employment sites and other local planning policy can be taken into account. Many councils have used similar measures to assert control over the conversion of family homes to Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs)
When the permitted development rights were introduced, an exemption was provided for London’s Central Activities Zone, which covers much of Central London. After the Government announced that this exemption would be withdrawn in 2019, London councils have been working to introduce their own Article 4 Directions to fill the gap.
Up to now, outside London, Article 4 Directions to control office to residential conversions have mainly been adopted by councils in the south of England.
In the North of England, office to residential conversions are apparent in Liverpool’s Commercial District, even as regeneration and property professionals have repeatedly raised concerns at the city’s lack of available quality office space suitable for incoming occupiers. In Newcastle-upon-Tyne, plans have recently been submitted under permitted development rights to convert the 18-storey 1960s Cale Cross House office block into 128 apartments. This building is relatively unattractive, but occupies a key site at the end of the Tyne Bridge, and was refurbished as office space relatively recently, in a constrained city centre with limited space for new offices.
The transformation of central Manchester over recent years has been dramatic, with the City Centre population rising from hardly anyone in 1991 to around 60,000 now, living in a mixture of conversions and purpose-built development, and demand for new homes shows no sign of slowing down. It also has some of the strongest demand for office space outside central London, forming as it does the North’s major commercial centre. It’s not surprising that Manchester City Council is the only major northern city to use an Article 4 Direction to attempt to regulate and control office to residential conversions. From 2013, permitted development rights for office to residential conversions were removed across much of the city’s commercial core, albeit along somewhat arbitrary boundaries.
However, from 1st May 2019, a revised Article 4 Direction covering effectively the whole of Central Manchester will come into effect. The central area reaches out into Castlefield, parts of Hulme, and the Oxford Road university corridor to the south, behind Piccadilly Station to the East, and significantly most of the Cheetham and Strangeways district to the north, currently largely occupied by wholesale, distribution and light industrial businesses, but seen as a key location for future development as the city centre expands.
The Article 4 Direction will also cover key employment sites, business parks and District Centres in North and South Manchester, and in Wythenshawe close to the Airport. This will not mean that office to residential conversions will be prohibited, but that the loss of employment space may be considered in deciding applications. It also means that Manchester’s other planning policies, including affordable housing requirements and space standards for new homes, will be a factor once more. Indeed, office to residential conversions have been allowed within the existing smaller central area covered by the Article 4 Direction, although they have tended to be relatively small in scale, for example above shops or in older buildings which might not be practically updated for modern office requirements.
Given Manchester’s keenness to protect employment space in and outside the city centre, its reputation for taking a lead which others follow, and the experience in London, it will be interesting to see if any other major and cities follow suit, particularly as Article 4 Directions can be applied to individual buildings and developments if required, as well as much larger areas.
In a related move, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, John Healey MP, announced today that any future Labour Government would scrap the permitted development right entirely, requiring developers to seek full planning permission for all future office to residential conversions regardless of location. Labour’s focus in this case appears to be on the quality and size of newly developed homes, rather than preserving employment sites, with Healey describing the permitted development right in hard-hitting terms as “a Tory get-out clause [which] is letting developers convert office blocks into slum housing while dodging any obligation to have low-cost homes as part of the development”. Responding on behalf of the Conservatives, Marcus Jones MP, Vice-Chair for Local Government, commented that "Labour's plans would cut house building and put a stop to people achieving homeownership…We are backing permitted development rights, which are converting dormant offices into places families can call home.”
For now, where developers are making use of permitted development rights, such as in Newcastle, they may still wish to engage more fully with local councils to try and avoid conflict over uses or with local policies, to reduce the likelihood of Article 4 Directions being introduced subsequently. Given Labour’s new plan to remove the permitted development right entirely, there is arguably now a much stronger possibility that individual councils will adopt their own Article 4 Directions in the meantime, while developers looking to acquire new sites to convert to residential at a later point may need to consider the implications of any change in Government. Where such Directions are in place, there is a clear need to engage positively and make a good case for office to residential conversions, which is where Newington’s local knowledge and experience can help.
