From yesterday's Evening Standard*:
City chiefs warned that the Square Mile's success as a financial centre is threatened by an explosion in the number of offices being converted into homes. They attacked government plans to scrap the need for planning consent to change commercial premises into residences as a "nuclear option" that risks huge harm...
The corporation warned [sic] that if it lost control over the number and location of residential developments, the commercial character of the City would come under threat from "short-term market forces"...
If more flats were interspersed among office blocks, just a few homeowners could stymy "large-scale and valuable" new schemes by objecting to them on issues such as the impact on light. The corporation is calling for either the City to be exempt from this change to planning consent or for a strong statement to encourage conversion of vacant offices into homes.
* See also Drewster's comments #2 and #6 regarding this article at HousepriceCrash
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1 comments:
A further irony is that many of these "commercial premises" were once houses and 90% of the remainder stand on land once occupied by houses.
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