How to Convert Offices into Homes without Planning Permission 

Simple question: can you really convert offices to homes in England without needing planning permission?

Simple (and to some people surprising answer): in most places and in many cases, yes.

Whether that is a good thing, a bad thing, or something that can be either depending on the circumstances, we’ll leave it to you to decide.

But the fact is that there is a permitted development right that allows you to do office-to-residential conversions, so we’re going to explain why it exists, the troubled history of this type of development, how the new rules for doing this work and then give an example of how to do it well.

Let’s get started…

Why Is There a Prior Approval Right for Office-to-Resi Conversions?

There are two ideas underlying the existence of this right, which falls into the category of permitted development known as prior approval.

The first is that the slow and sometimes difficult process of getting planning permission is one of the causes of the housing shortage.

The second, one we’re more inclined to agree with, is that reusing existing buildings is a good idea.

And since 2013, when the original Class O – converting B1(a) (offices) to C3 (house or flat) – right was brought in, there has been a shift in the way that many people doing desk jobs work. That shift was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

People who would traditionally have commuted into an office are increasingly working from home some or all of the time. That has left some office buildings, especially older ones, struggling to get tenants.

Meanwhile, soaring house prices have meant that residential development has become appealing to property owners who were previously focused on the business market.

All of that seems sensible enough. Unfortunately, when Class O was being drawn up, the government’s priority seems to have been to make it as simple to use as possible. And some of the results of that were, well, terrible.

Future Slums

As originally written, Class O lacked provisions to protect the quality of life of the residents of the new flats. And some developers took full advantage, creating cramped and dark “homes”, the worst of which had no windows.

To read more and access the full Urbanist Architecture article Click Here 

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