London families are finding themselves in “cramped, substandard, and unaffordable homes” due to “flawed” government planning regulations, new research reveals.
Almost 16,000 homes have been built under relaxed conversion to residential rules (Permitted Development) since 2013, but fewer than 1% are affordable according to analysis from Labour’s London Assembly Housing Spokesperson, Tom Copley AM.
His report, Slums of the Future – Permitted Development Conversions in London, also found that over half of Permitted Development homes identified flout minimum space standards, with one property in Croydon measuring just 10 square metres.
Office space the size of 224 Wembley football pitches has been lost due to office-to-residential conversions during this period.
Now, Copley urges Government to scrap Permitted Development, and said current proposals to extend it would result in “condemning tens of thousands more Londoners to living in “miserable” conditions.
“This cannot carry on, we need to solve the national housing crisis, but subjecting London families to cramped, substandard and unaffordable homes is not the way to do it,” Copley said.
Permitted Development rules allow developers to convert certain office and industrial buildings to residential use without going through the full planning process, in an aim to speed up the delivery of new homes.
London requires 65,000 new homes a year, according to the New London Plan, with 65% of these needing to be affordable.
Yet analysis of London Development Database figures by Copley reveals that of 15,929 homes built through these types of conversions since 2013, only 71 were affordable – accounting for just 0.4%.
With the Mayor of London’s current minimum target set at 35% on privately owned land, this means the capital has missed out on 5,504 affordable homes.
The report also exposes a huge proportion of permitted development homes as flouting minimum space standards set by the Government.
Copley was able to identify the floor space of 3,135 permitted development homes using Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data.
Of those, 1,837 are smaller than the minimum standard, and 240 were less than half this lowest threshold.
Some of the worst examples are seen in Croydon where 80% of properties identified failed to meet minimum space standards, including one development where the smallest flat was just 10 square metres.
As of February 2018, Permitted Development has resulted in the loss of 1.6million square metres of office space across London – the equivalent of 224 Wembley football pitches.
Some parts of inner London are currently exempt from Permitted Development, with Outer London seeing the biggest impact.
Croydon has seen the largest number of Permitted Development conversions (2,722), followed by Hounslow, Sutton and Barnet.
Yet Lambeth and Islington, both inner London boroughs, are also seeing a significant impact.
Last Autumn, the Government consulted on proposals to extend Permitted Development to allow a wider range of high street uses to be converted to homes without planning permission.
Government also proposes to give Permitted Development Rights to the full demolition of commercial buildings to be rebuilt as residential properties.
Copley’s report urges the Mayor of London to add to the pressure on the Government to scrap Permitted Development.
If the Government refuses, Copley said they must then commit to ensuring permitted development properties meet space standards and contribute to London’s affordable housing need.
He also calls for better support for councils in using Article 4 directions to restrict the use of Permitted Development and prevent the loss of SME space.
“Permitted Development is an unnecessary and deeply flawed policy. If this continues unchecked, we will be condemning tens of thousands more Londoners to living in miserable conditions.
“Some may call them ‘rabbit hutches’ or others ‘micro-homes’, but we must be clear about what we are building when we allow masses of Permitted Development conversions: the slums of the future,” said Copley.
