Permitted Development rights: The new rules for agricultural buildings
The government has now published the detailed legislation relating to converting redundant agricultural building to residential dwellings without the need to apply for planning consent.
3 minutes to read
As mentioned in my blog post last week, the new Permitted Development rights, which only apply in England and come into effect from 6 April 2014, will allow the conversion of buildings up to 450 sq metres to create a maximum of three dwellings per holding.
The new rights will not be available for buildings in designated areas such as National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) or Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
Listed buildings are also excluded and buildings used for equine uses are generally not considered “agricultural” in planning terms, unless the horses housed in them are reared for meat or used to work the land.
To qualify for the new Permitted Development rights, the buildings must have been “used solely for an agricultural use, as part of an agricultural unit on 20 March 2013”.
Buildings brought into use after that date can only be converted once they have been used for agricultural purposes for 10 years.
"The installation or replacement of windows, doors, roofs, or exterior walls, or water, drainage, electricity, gas or other services will be allowed to the extent reasonably necessary for the building to function as a house. Partial demolition will also be permitted to the extent reasonably necessary to carry out building operations."
_The Government's Guidance
This would seem to preclude knocking down barns and rebuilding on their footprints as had originally been proposed.
Although, overall, the new Permitted Development rights are welcome news for the owners of farm buildings that are underutilised or no longer suited to modern agriculture, there are still a number of hoops that have to be jumped through.
Read the comments of James Del Mar, Knight Frank’s Head of Rural Consultancy on the changes.
First off, even though owners will not need to apply for planning consent, they will still have to notify their local council to determine if prior approval will be needed relating to the issues listed below:
- Transport and highways impacts of the development
- Noise impacts of the development
- Contamination risks on the site
- Flooding risks on the site
- Design or external appearance of the building
- And a final catchall – whether the location or siting of the building makes it otherwise impractical or undesirable for the building to change from agricultural use to a house.
It’s also worth noting that the new rights won’t be available to businesses that have used other Permitted Development rights to build or extend agricultural buildings since 20 March 2013.
In addition, those utilising the new residential rights will also not be able to benefit from Permitted Development Rights to construct or extend an agricultural building for the following 10 years.
The pessimists amongst us might come to the conclusion that all of the above gives local authorities plenty of ammunition to prevent any conversions they consider undesirable.
One planning expert has already been in contact to say his local authority has hinted that it plans to use the final catchall mentioned to do just that.
However, we have to be optimistic that the planning Minister Nick Boles will not allow councils to be unnecessarily obstructive as this would fly in the face of his commitment to provide more rural housing.
Read the full details of the new Permitted Development Rights relating to the conversion of agricultural buildings to residential dwellings (page 8 of the PDF).
Please contact Andy McMullan from Knight Frank’s specialist planning team if you would like further advice.