On 18 December 2025, Lord Crisp will be asking the government to clarify its policy position on creating additional housing units through permitted development rights. This short briefing outlines the TCPA’s concerns over the health and placemaking impacts of permitted development rights (PDR).
PDR rules have expanded over the past decade, allowing easier conversion of offices and industrial buildings into homes without proper planning scrutiny. However, this approach has led to the creation of substandard housing, particularly affecting vulnerable populations.
Research has highlighted numerous problems with PDR housing, including fire safety risks, overcrowding, poor ventilation, overheating, inaccessibility, and lack of green or play space provision. It has also cut the usual developer contributions towards the wider community needs, such as affordable housing, schools and GP surgeries. Residents have reported severe impacts on their health and wellbeing, likening their living conditions to ‘prisons’.
The lack of strategic planning oversight has resulted in poor-quality homes in unsuitable locations, undermining government efforts to address health inequalities. Local authorities report insufficient regulatory power and resources to properly shape the quality of PDR housing.
Kendal Court, East Sussex – PDR flats in a former light industrial building where 10 residents died between 2016 and 2021.
To ensure safe and healthy housing, the TCPA recommends that the government impose a moratorium on further PDR conversions and revert to pre-2013 regulations, requiring full planning applications for significant building use changes to residential use. This would help prevent the production of further unsafe homes and better ensure that new housing developments will contribute positively to people’s wellbeing.
