Out-Law News 1 min. read
20 Aug 2015, 3:04 pm
Last year, Croydon Council issued an Article 4 direction to remove the permitted development right for change of use from office to residential. Following public consultation, the Council confirmed the Article 4 direction and it is due to come into effect on 10 September 2015.
After this date, anyone who wishes to convert an office to residential dwelling will need to submit a full planning application.
In December 2014, the Council sent a letter to residents notifying them of this change and advised that any permitted development that had received consent needed to be completed prior to 10 September 2015. "To clarify; it is considered that development is not completed nor the use commenced until the individual units are occupied or available for occupation as self-contained units. Any changes or works that have not taken place will require a planning application to be submitted," the letter said.
SHW contacted the department for communities and local government to seek clarification on this point. According to a statement on SHW's website, the communities secretary has recently confirmed that where a development has received approval prior to the implementation of the article 4 direction, the developer has a "three year period from the date of consent in order to be completed".
Planning expert Victoria Lindsay of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the clarification was " useful given that many developers have been unsure as to when prior approval schemes needed to be built and completed leaving considerable uncertainty in the industry".
"The clarification confirms that already consented schemes will have a three year period from the date of prior approval consent in order to be completed," she said.
"Given the Secretary of State's clarification was communicated only to SHW and not to any other consultancy or indeed Croydon Council, we would expect that a government announcement will be made on this matter very soon," she said.