Change of use from Office to Residential
On 24 January 2013 the Government announced its intention to change planning regulations to remove the need for planning permission for changes of uses from commercial offices to residential.
Following a short period of consultation the entire Borough was exempted from these reforms, or being “article 2(5) land”. As such planning permission is required for any change of use from Class B1(a) offices to Class C3 residential in any part of the Borough.
A copy of the map showing the exempted area can be viewed on the Department for Communities and Local Government’s website
The documents submitted by the Council to the Department for Communities and Local Government can be viewed below.
Appendix A: Proposed Exclusion Maps
Map A: Exclusion area: nationally significant areas
Map B: Exclusion area: locally significant areas
Please note: whilst the case studies have been submitted to CLG, they have not been made available online as are considered to be commercially sensitive:
Appendix C: Market Commentary and the associated case studies. Frost Meadowcroft (2013).
Appendix D: Commercial Property Study (Roger Tym and Partners, 2013). [PDF] (Warning large file size 4.1 Mb)
Appendix E: Kensington Record Labels, Frost Meadowcroft (2012)
In 2016 the Council commissioned an update to the initial TBR report to help the Council decide whether the full borough exemption was still relevant. This can be viewed below.
The Government has confirmed that this exemption will end on 31 May 2019. In order to ensure that planning permission will continue to be required from May 2019 the Council has made a borough-wide Article 4 Direction. The Council will consider representations received before deciding whether to confirm the Article 4 direction. More details can be found on the Planning Policy Consultations webpage.