Bristol City Council’s bid to have the city centre and Avonmouth exempted from Government plans to relax planning rules on converting office buildings to residential accommodation has been unsuccessful.
Broad Quay property agents Colliers International said the decision opened the way for landlords seeking to give surplus offices a new lease of life.
National Offices director Stephen Lipfriend said there were high levels of obsolete office space across the city which could provide hundreds of new dwellings and help ease the UK’s chronic housing shortage. But he did not think the decision would open the floodgates to developers seeking to convert older stock.
He said: “Although we recognise Bristol City Council’s reluctance to stand by while large numbers of offices across the city are converted to residential we don’t believe too many landlords will be taking up those options.
“There has been a considerable amount of publicity about slums being created out of old office buildings but this is misleading. Any conversions will need to comply fully with the latest Building Regulations, even where planning permission is not required.”
He went on: “As we have seen so many times in Bristol, office buildings and designs go out of fashion within a decade or two and this feeds into high levels of empty and even obsolete space which can easily become an eyesore.
“But although there are a number of secondary buildings and even offices over shops which could now reward development not all of this available space will be suitable for conversion to residential.”
Stephen Lipfriend was commenting on the latest Government moves to streamline the process for landlords looking to convert surplus or secondary stock into new homes.
More than a dozen specific locations in the country have been exempted from the relaxation in planning rules but Bristol City Council’s bid to add the city centre and Avonmouth to the list of exempted areas proved unsuccessful.
The relaxation in planning rules will not be applied to listed buildings and applications for planning permission and listed building consent will still be necessary.
Under the changes, which come into effect at the end of the month, developers will be allowed to change the use from an office (Use Class B1(a)) to residential use (Use Class C3) without the need for planning permission.
Prior approval will still be required from the local authority. Most external physical changes to office premises will still be subject to planning approval.
Stephen Lipfriend said thousands of square feet of redundant office space in Bristol had already been snapped up for conversion to student accommodation.
“The Government’s initiative could encourage developers to look more closely at other offices. It could have more impact further away from the city centre, where the incidental costs of converting buildings – which was formerly fairly prohibitive – might not be as high.”
Critics claim the Government’s proposals could have a negative effect circumventing normal housing policy requirements such as provision of affordable housing.
There will be no opportunity for local councils to seek Section 106 obligations to secure local infrastructure such as schools, health and other community services.
But Stephen Lipfriend believes the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks.
He said: “For instance developing a large building in say Bedminster which nobody has rented for many years could now be cost effective. To take a building and put it into profitable use will stimulate the economy, particularly the construction sector and help ease pressure for more housing at the same time. It really is a good news story all round.”