Late last year the Government consulted on their proposed changes to Permitted Development Rights together with other changes to the current planning system. The consultation closed on January 28th. We held an extremely thoughtful roundtable event to discuss the issues and then responded to the government’s proposals (link).
Unusually they published the results of the consultation by the end of March. Most of the nearly 900 respondents were against most of the proposed changes to permitted development rights. The government simply went ahead with their original proposals by statutory order – ie no discussion in Parliament.
It is in this context and the fact that the Planning Bill is still in play that the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government Select Committee decided to hold an Inquiry on Permitted Development Rights asking for evidence by April 30th. Here we publish our response (link) which aims to clarify the potential loses to place-making but also suggests more positive approaches to addressing the government’s concerns within the proposals in the Planning White Paper.
