Building Up!

At the recent Conservative Party Conference, the Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick announced that the Government will introduce permitted development rights to allow homeowners to build two storeys on purpose built blocks of flats from January 2020. The Government intends to extend this right to all detached properties in the future. Precise details of the proposals are awaited, however we anticipate that prior approval will be needed from the Council. 

This is likely to bring challenges for local authorities including addressing issues such as residential amenity and design quality which will be the true measure of success of airspace development. 

In addition, further planning proposals will be set out in the Accelerated Planning Green Paper which will be published later this year.  We will of course keep you updated!