England: After much speculation, permitted development rights to allow the conversion of offices (Use Class B1(a)) to residential (Use Class C3) have been made permanent by the Government with effect from 6 April 2016. Temporary permitted development rights allowing the conversion of office buildings were first introduced by coalition Government in 2013 […]
Approved: certificate of lawfulness for use of outbuilding as dwelling in Poole
Borough of Poole: Pure Town Planning are pleased to announce that we have recently secured a Certificate of Lawfulness confirming that the existing use of an outbuilding as a self-contained dwellinghouse on Bournemouth Road, Poole is lawful. Lawfulness was claimed on grounds that no enforcement action may be taken in […]
Approved: lawful development certificate for a 100 sqm domestic outbuilding in Surrey
Tandridge District Council: Pure Town Planning are pleased to have secured a Lawful Development Certificate (LDC) for a 100 sqm outbuilding (complying with Class E of the General Permitted Development Order (2015) (GPDO)). This outbuilding was needed by our client to provide them with a private gym, swimming pool and […]
Approved: certificate of lawful use for charity to use HMO as single household with care
Bournemouth Borough Council: Pure Town Planning are pleased to announce that, working with Design & Development Associates Ltd, we have recently secured a Lawful Development Certificate confirming a proposed change of use from a C4 Dwellinghouse (House of Multiple Occupation) to a C3 (b) dwellinghouse. A C3 (b) Use for […]
Government seek to appeal affordable homes threshold ruling
England: The government has been given permission by the Court of Appeal to appeal to it against the recent High Court ruling that struck down the national 10-unit affordable threshold. The judgement (which we reported here) issued in July resulted in the quashing of the government’s 8-month old policy that residential schemes of […]
National 10-unit affordable threshold struck down by court ruling
England: In a surprise High Court ruling issued on Friday (31 July) the Government’s policy for a national affordable housing threshold (of 10-units or 1000 sqm), which was introduced back in November, has been quashed. The policy no longer applies effective immediately. In the same decision the vacant building credit is […]
Latest changes to permitted development rights…
England: The Government has just laid The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 – the first consolidated permitted development order since 1995. It’s about time as the 1995 order was subject to over 20 separate amendment orders – ten of which under the present Government. The consolidated […]
Legal challenge to new 10-unit affordable housing threshold policy
England: So it seems West Berkshire and Reading Borough Councils have taken the plunge and applied to the High Court for a Judicial Review of the Government’s new 10-unit affordable housing threshold policy introduced at the end of November (see our report on that policy here). We don’t have details of […]
Approved: B1(a) to C3 Prior Approval Application in Hinckley, Leicestershire
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council: Pure Town Planning’s list of planning approvals further afield continues to grow… We are delighted to announce that we have recently helped a client to secure consent for a prior approval application in Hinckley, Leicestershire to convert a redundant town centre office into residential use. The scheme will […]
The Government wonders if we’d like more changes to permitted development rights
England: Here we go again, another consultation on changes to the planning system from the Department for Communities and Local Government. This time the Government are seeking views on a whole range of proposed measures but probably most relevant to our clients will be further possible changes to permitted development rights. […]