The TCPA recognises the urgent need for more good quality and affordable homes. However, the TCPA is concerned that the further incremental expansion of Permitted Development Rights (PDR) is undermining local authorities’ attempts to masterplan and promote healthy homes and communities and deliver effective regeneration. Existing PDR rules are failing to ensure good quality homes and places that enable healthy outcomes for people and communities. We know that the poor health consequences associated with poor quality homes have knock-on costs to society and the economy, harming productivity and prosperity.
Our particular concerns in this latest consultation relate to:
- Householder development: allowing further flexibilities for householder extensions will potentially increase the loss of private green space and incur loss of daylight, impacting on neighbours ‘rights of light’;
- Building upwards: removing the age limit of buildings that can have floors added to them, raises potential structural safety concerns for older buildings, highlighting the need to require safety checks; it also poses potential harm to cultural heritage and design character; and
- Demolition and rebuild: expanding the scope of buildings permitted to be demolished raises concerns about the standards of rebuilding (as they will not need to seek full planning permission), the loss of contributions to affordable housing and local amenities through section 106 agreements, and the loss of embodied carbon from relatively new buildings.
