Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing presented a report on the issue of permitted development regulations, introduced by the Government from August 2020, that had granted the right to extend various buildings upwards, including blocks of flats, dwelling houses and commercial units, through the prior approval planning process.

The Cabinet member advised that the prior approval process afforded local authorities limited criteria, set in law, against which to examine proposals and only allowed limited contributions to mitigate their impact on local infrastructure or ensure the provision of affordable housing through a S106 planning obligation.  The new regulations had the potential to create significant negative impacts on local communities and the Council would have no control on the design of those types of development, therefore undermining the Council’s ambitions for improving the design quality of new developments within the Borough.

The Cabinet Member stated that evidence suggested that the greatest impact of the permitted development rights would be on existing residential areas and not on the industrial areas within the Borough, as exampled by two recent planning applications for the construction of additional storeys on top of existing residential buildings to create new units.  It was therefore considered that it would be in the Borough’s best interests to adopt an Article 4 Direction to remove certain permitted development rights within the residential areas of the Borough, excluding industrial areas as shown in appendices to the report and in accordance with the provisions of the Local Plan.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Agree to adopt the Article 4 Direction, under the General Permitted Development Order 2015, to remove the permitted development rights in relation to additional storeys above certain buildings within specific areas of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham; and

(ii)  Delegate authority to the Director of Inclusive Growth, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing and the Director of Law and Governance, to vary the extent of the Article 4 Direction in relation to industrial areas in the Borough as deemed appropriate.