It’s up to us to keep our local shops alive and thriving
Numerous planner, architect and developer trade organisations have expressed dismay at a government announcement last month that permitted development rights (PDR) will be expanded. The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) said it “cannot fathom” why the government believed the policy “is in any way a good idea”.
The changes mean most unused commercial buildings, including shops, banks, restau-rants, gyms and creches, can be converted into housing without a planning application. Previously, PDRs mainly only applied to office blocks.
Ministers have said the move, which comes into force later this month, will give ailing high streets a new lease of life and deliver new homes on brownfield land. A laudable aim perhaps but Victoria Hills, chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute cautions that the changes are “a complete gift to unscrupulous developers”. It seems inevitable that some freeholders will view this PDR as an opportunity to cash in regardless of the viability of the shop or store; or its value to the local community. It is eminently foreseeable that the law of unintended consequences (as evidenced in the previous PDR by the grotesque examples of “rabbit hutch homes” in office blocks often created without the benefit of natural light) will come into play. Many remote freeholders who have no particular affinity with the local communities they serve will simply do the arithmetic. The property returns for residential use can be of much greater value when measured against corresponding returns as retail outlets. Apart from premises already vacant, which the PDR seeks to address, all the freeholder would have to do is decline the renewal of a lease in order to render his premises vacant and ripe for conversion.
Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, said that he wanted to help high streets to “adapt and thrive” but the new PDR does not seem to make any distinction between High Streets, shop-ping centres or small parades of shops (eg, The Avenue and Green Street); and conservation areas, despite opposition from the National Trust, are not exempt.
It is said that the closure of high street shops is inevitable because of online sales. That is partly true but our high streets are dominated by branches of chain stores which represent by far the largest majority of store closures. Even if we were to take a lesson from France or Germany where typical high streets have a sprinkling of independent artisan bakers, butchers, clothiers and ironmongers etc. towns and villages in this country would still be vulnerable to the whim of individual free-holders.
The pandemic lockdown has already left many of our local shops and businesses struggling. They will need our support more than ever if they are to survive and thrive.