Councils are not cooperating with measures intended to make it easier to convert offices into homes, say surveyors
The government is facing calls to make it easier to turn unused offices into homes. Chartered surveyors Cluttons reckons local authorities are making it difficult to create residential properties.
Cluttons said the chancellor, George Osborne, had pledged to allow owners of offices to transform unwanted space into homes without applying for consent from local councils but councils are resisting the measures.
It said councils had lobbied to ensure the changes were not put in place through secondary legislation with which they would have had to comply. Cluttons has produced data showing that although 82% of such conversions in London were granted permission between 2001 and 2010, they were now being reversed.
Malcolm Chumbley, head of UK development at the estate agent, said he would write to communities secretary Eric Pickles to urge him to legislate on the issue as soon as possible. "In many parts of the country, the need for residential property severely outweighs requirements for offices. This situation needs to be acknowledged," he said.
In 2010 around 3% of new homes were the result of office conversions and the government has argued that £140m could be saved in 10 years by sweeping away rules requiring property developers to apply for permission to convert an office into a home. The changes could create up to 250,000 homes if all long-term unoccupied offices were converted.
The idea is not popular with all business communities and the Corporation of London – the local authority for the City – has warned that converting office space into homes during a downturn could damage the financial district as it would limit the opportunities for later expansion.