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Planning permission ditched for extensions and conservatories

John Fitzsimons
by Lovemoney Staff John Fitzsimons on 06 September 2012  |  Comments 18 comments

The Government is to allow larger extensions and conservatories to be built without planning permission for a limited time in an effort to help kickstart the economy.

Planning permission ditched for extensions and conservatories

The Government is to announce plans to allow homeowners to extend their properties without the need for planning permission.

For a limited period larger than usual extensions and conservatories will be permitted, while shops, offices and industrial units will also be able to expand without needing the approval of local authorities.

Extending current limits

Under current rules, planning permission is required for extensions of more than three to four metres from the rear wall of a property, depending on whether it is semi-detached or detached. This will be doubled to six to eight metres. Meanwhile businesses will be able to expand shops by 100 square metres and industrial units by 200 metres.

The plans also include the ability for unused offices or industrial properties to be switched to residential developments without going through the planning permission process.

The changes will not apply in protected areas.

The Government believes that “getting the planners off our backs” thanks to these new Permitted Development Rights will be a step towards kickstarting the economy.

Building new homes

The Government also wants to boost the building of new properties. If developers can show that current requirements to build a certain number of affordable properties within each development is making the project 'unviable' they can ignore that requirement altogether. This will apparently help build 75,000 properties which are currently stalled.

£10 billion of Government money will be going towards the building of extra homes, while 5,000 homes specifically for rent will be built, following last month's Montague report. You can read about the report in Is build-to-let the answer to the housing shortage?

The new home backlog

However, new research from the Local Government Association, suggests that it’s not planning permission that is holding back the development of new homes.

It believes 400,000 new homes have received planning permission, yet have not been completed. In fact, building work has yet to even begin on more than half of those developments.

It puts this down to a lack of builder finance and the struggles of first-time buyers to access mortgages.

Indeed, the overall percentage of planning applications green lighted last year hit a ten-year high.

Help for first-time buyers

In addition to the new planning permission rules, the Government is to extend the FirstBuy scheme, which offers first-time buyers equity loans of up to 20% of the property value to use as a deposit, to help an extra 16,500 buyers.

What do you think? Is this sort of relaxing of planning laws going to make a difference? Do you plan to take advantage? What would your reaction be if your neighbours took advantage of the new rules? Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below.

More on home improvements:

Things to look for in a good tradesman

How-to » Make home improvements

DIY spending falls to record low

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Comments (18)

  • Tanni
    Love rating 92
    Tanni said

    @matchmade, setup as a friends provident/social enterprise for a one off regeneration/development.

    I am speaking from experience and a proven track record with top ten local authorities and their housing, regeneration depts. do not believe me? Come down and I will show you.

    I can assure you that it is cheaper to build your own house rather then buy one ready made. Also as a developer you can make many thousands if not hundreds of thousands from building more then just one house, the more you construct the more you earn as otherwise you wouldn't make them!

    Re the s106, I've worked with social housing, private developers and regeneration bodies. I have managed to on numerous occasions secure funding,planning, consensus amongst locals/nimby crew by encouraging the tenants and residents of the area to jump up and down about investment on behalf of my employer. I can assure you that local authorities/housing providers bend over backwards to have projects match funded and will imply that all have been consulted and that 10 properties out of every 100 to be made will go down the affordable homes scheme. You are talking about millions of pounds here so what are ten houses? Nothing as the work is contracted out, the houses are made of cheap brick and concrete and in essence cost nothing as the workers on site are going to construct them as part of their tender anyway.imagine a plot of land that you have been given cheaply ie £100k. Now divide that plot into 100 plots. Allocate ten plots for s106 ( usually at the back or on the edge of the estate where it's less desirable) with the remaining plots build 90 homes at a third of the selling price. Sell 90 plots for £199k and above. You can calculate the amounts involved for yourself. Do not forget that you, developers can use for example european builders and materials from abroad. By doing this they do not have to abide by UK minimum wage as you pay them the minimum wage from their country. Do not believe me? Who were the workers on the Trafford centre, meadow hall, dome, Olympic stadiums etc...you'll be surprised. Re the finance for the development; the locals can apply for European and local funding to help underwrite the project.

    The council will give developers incentives ie portions of land, easy time with planning and help them secure funding under the guise that the local residents want it. The tender process can be more transparent. The workforce used is very rarely local and the resources used are very rarely local. So who benefits? A few social tenants and the rest of the housing gets sold to private individuals and management companies. The developer will not get involved unless he receives major numeration which is underwritten from the offset. Of course it's a little more complicated but you should get the picture. I left my role to offer freelance type consulting service at the request of various large scale developers and my services are available with a portfolio which may surprise some with negative outlooks.

    Also referencing the costs of infrastructure. Well you are building many homes and it makes sense that more residences will further burden the roads, schools and hospitals so a fair proportion of your taxable income must be used for infrastructure. Developers can spend over a million on just doing the consulting and winning support amongst the locals for their project. I would say that developers need to do more and give more to the locals in terms of s106. The current system has far too many loop holes.

    Report on 08 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • HappyHacker
    Love rating 18
    HappyHacker said

    As the extension relaxation does not apply to conservation areas, for those who live in these areas, which effectively make all the houses in the area "listed", getting permission will as usual be almost impossible. Local conservation will not be happy until we are all wearing smocks and straw hats and doffing them to the tourists.

    A knee jerk reaction that will not solve any of our problems.

    Report on 10 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love

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