Michael Gove’s ‘to let owners construct extensions with out permission’
- The proposals are a part of a wider shake-up to planning guidelines unveiled on Monday
Michael Gove has triggered a backlash over plans to let owners construct extensions with no planning permission.
The Housing Secretary was accused of sparking a possible ‘free for all’ that would spoil the character of long-preserved cities and result in wars between neighbours.
A session on permitted growth rights, revealed yesterday, proposes to let owners construct wider and taller extensions with out planning consent.
This consists of L-shaped wrap-arounds, loft conversions and kitchen extensions. It lays out plans to scrap guidelines that imply a house and any extension can’t make up greater than 50 per cent of the land surrounding it, referred to as the ‘curtilage’.
It additionally proposes to permit owners to transform as a lot loft area as they like with out permission.
The Housing Secretary has been accused of sparking a possible ‘free for all’ over planning permission modifications
The proposals are a part of a wider shake-up to planning guidelines unveiled on Monday (Stock picture)
The proposals are a part of a wider shake-up to planning guidelines unveiled on Monday. Changes imply permission for houses shall be robotically granted in city areas that don’t meet their constructing targets.
Red tape may even be slashed so empty workplaces and outlets may be transformed into houses extra simply.
But David Toogood, from Harding Chartered Surveyors in south-west London, instructed the Telegraph: ‘If you let neighbours make these modifications to their properties with out controlling it, you may create a civil conflict. It will not work.’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed the measures would ‘defend our treasured countryside’ by leaving the Green Belt untouched whereas serving to to spice up house-building.
Ministers consider the proposal to permit doubtlessly ‘thousands and thousands’ of extensions may present a lift to small and medium-sized builders. Tory MP Greg Smith, whose constituency covers rural Buckinghamshire, mentioned he supported small extensions with out planning permission however there should be limits.
He added: ‘This does have the potential to pit neighbour towards neighbour as if we’re entering into the realms of an additional three-storey extension on the backs of homes, that is going to trigger huge disputes.’
Steve Double, Tory MP for St Austell and Newquay in Cornwall, mentioned that there needed to be ‘correct checks and balances’ to the proposals.
Noble Francis, from commerce group the Construction Products Association, mentioned: ‘Extensions and rebuilding houses can usually result in battle between neighbours so an easing of the planning system may result in extra battle.’
