Historic England’s Planning Bulletin for June outlines impacts on Permitted Development Rights (PDRs) linked to new planning regulations.
HE writes:
Permitted Development Rights
- The Town and Country Planning (Permitted Development and Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 were introduced on the 25 June. Amongst other things, it introduces a new temporary Permitted Development (PD) Right that allows the holding of outdoor markets without the need for planning permission, and a temporary increase doubling the length of time that temporary structures can be placed on land without needing an application for planning permission. There are also changes to PD Rights relating to side extensions, as well as requirements that all housing permitted under PD Rights to adhere to a new natural light requirement.
- PD Rights will be extended to the construction of up to two storeys ‘to create new flats on the topmost residential storey of a building which is an existing purpose-built, detached block of flats’. Some other key points regarding this PD Right are:
• Listed Buildings, Scheduled Monuments and their curtilages, as well as Article 2(3) Land are excluded. Article 2(3) Land being: Conservation areas, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Parks, the Broads, and World Heritage Sites.
• The new homes must also be flats, the instrument states, while the right only applies to buildings built after 1 July 1948 and before 5 March 2018 and excludes those within a site of special scientific interest.
• The right is restricted to buildings of three storeys or more in height and the extended building must not be more than 30 metres in total height.
• The height of the extension cannot be greater than seven metres compared to the highest part of the existing roof, while any new storeys must be individually no more than three metres in height
• Development is only permitted subject to prior approval. Conditions for local authority consideration include: transport and highways impacts; air traffic and defence asset impacts; contamination and flooding risks.
• In addition, councils can also take into account the building’s external appearance; the provision of adequate natural light in all habitable rooms; the impact on the amenity of the existing building and neighbouring premises, and whether ‘because of the siting of the building, the development will impact on a protected view’.
• Historic England must be consulted on prior notifications which impact on protected views.
