Raynsford Review raps permitted development ‘slums’

Nick Raynsford

Permitted development is a "toxic" practice which is creating "slums of the future" according to a senior member of the Raynsford team that has been reviewing the English planning system.

Led by former housing minister Nick Raynsford, the report for the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) called on the government to immediately restrict permitted development, which allows the conversion of commercial buildings to housing units without the same safeguards applied to other development.

• Quality warning for permitted development rights conversions

It also described the English planning system as a “chaotic patchwork” of responsibilities not compatible with promoting health, wellbeing and the civil rights of communities.

The report claimed that while planning has a huge potential to make people’s lives better, the opportunity has been undermined by deregulation.

The study, which has gathered findings over the last 18 months, also claimed that people no longer perceive councils as able to protect the public interest, with the economic gain of landowners and developers taking precedent over all else.

It called on the Treasury to partially redistribute capital gains tax and stamp duty to invest in the nation’s deprived areas, with councils given powers to compulsory purchase land at a price which allows communities to benefit from the uplift of values created by development.

Raynsford said: “We ignore at our peril the anger and disaffection felt by so many communities at the failure of current planning policies and procedures to listen to their concerns and respond to their needs. Restoring public confidence in the planning system is one of our generation’s greatest challenges.

“Visionary planning is not just about creating great places in which to live and work. It is also about ensuring that we meet the huge environmental challenges our society faces, not least those arising from the very serious threat of global warming”.

Hugh Ellis, interim chief executive of the TCPA, said: “Permitted development is toxic and leads to a type of inequality not seen in the Britain for over a century. Under the arrangements—which have already produced over 100,000 housing units—vulnerable people are stripped of any right to light and space, which their children forced to play in active car parks—with contribution to local services such as doctor’s surgeries or local schools.

“We have a choice. Do we want to build the slums of the future or create places that actually enhance people’s lives?”