Vacant offices as well as under-used industrial sites should be used to build more homes without having to get planning permission for change of use, according to a new report from Policy Exchange.
The report entitled More homes: fewer empty buildings was commissioned by the think tank and finds there is a large discrepancy between the vacancy rates for commercial and residential property. It finds that while 3% of houses are currently empty nationwide, even in the economically-vibrant South East, office vacancies are running at 17%.
Authors Alex Morton and Richard Ehrman show that despite the housing crisis, there are 266,000 vacant commercial units, many of which have outlived their usefulness.
Morton said: “Councils are holding back the conversion of vacant and under-used urban space into housing. Relaxing the planning rules to make it easier to convert commercial property would encourage investment, increase regeneration and create large numbers of jobs. We have rates of vacancy among commercial buildings nearly six times that of empty housing. That is a major indictment of our current system.”
According to the report in 2008, around 16,000 homes were converted from redundant commercial premises. By freeing-up the system, the authors expect that figure could be multiplied many times. Proposals for the scheme include converting any retail or office class building or land that has been vacant for more than a year into housing without planning permission. Or, if a building has been vacant for less than a year, up to 50% of the overall floor-space should be allowed to convert to homes in any five-year period without the need for planning permission.
james.kenny@estatesgazette.com
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