IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v56y2024i3p961-978.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Planning deregulation as solution to the housing crisis: The affordability, amenity and adequacy of Permitted Development in London

Author

Listed:
  • Ian Chng
  • Jonathan Reades

    (University College London, UK)

  • Phil Hubbard

    (King’s College London, UK)

Abstract

Since 2013, Permitted Development Rights (PDR) in England have allowed commercial-to-residential conversions in locations once deemed suitable only for non-residential land-use. This deregulation of planning control has been justified as a way of encouraging more home-building in areas experiencing ‘housing crisis’, but its overall consequences remain unclear. This paper hence compiles quantitative evidence on a city-wide scale on the price, size, build and location of these conversions in London 2013–2021. It finds that homes produced through this route are generally smaller than the London average and are over-concentrated in neighbourhoods with fewer accessible green spaces and higher-than-average levels of air pollution. Here, larger conversion schemes (of more than 10 units) appear particularly problematic, potentially subjecting residents to forms of ‘slow violence’ that could have long-term consequences for their physical and mental health. The paper also finds that, on average, PDR conversions are marginally more affordable than other new developments in the capital, but are also more expensive per square metre, suggesting deregulation is allowing developers to ‘extract’ maximum value from these schemes rather than providing affordable homes per se. The implications of this are discussed in relation to the politics of housing in London and the wider forms of planning deregulation allowing developers to accrue increased profits from housing in an era of intense financialisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Chng & Jonathan Reades & Phil Hubbard, 2024. "Planning deregulation as solution to the housing crisis: The affordability, amenity and adequacy of Permitted Development in London," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 961-978, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:3:p:961-978
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X231209982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X231209982
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X231209982?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer Robinson & Katia Attuyer, 2021. "Extracting Value, London Style: Revisiting the Role of the State in Urban Development," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 303-331, March.
    2. Frances Brill & Daniel Durrant, 2021. "The emergence of a Build to Rent model: The role of narratives and discourses," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(5), pages 1140-1157, August.
    3. Kevin Muldoon-Smith & Paul Greenhalgh, 2016. "Greasing the wheels, or a spanner in the works? Permitting the adaptive re-use of redundant office buildings into residential use in England," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 175-191, April.
    4. Rodrigo Fernandez & Annelore Hofman & Manuel B Aalbers, 2016. "London and New York as a safe deposit box for the transnational wealth elite," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(12), pages 2443-2461, December.
    5. Derbyshire, Mike & Havers, Tim, 2015. "Office-to-residential conversions under permitted development: De-regularising the planning system," Journal of Building Survey, Appraisal & Valuation, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 3(4), pages 311-316, February.
    6. Jessica Ferm & Ben Clifford & Patricia Canelas & Nicola Livingstone, 2021. "Emerging problematics of deregulating the urban: The case of permitted development in England," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(10), pages 2040-2058, August.
    7. Chris Hamnett & Jonathan Reades, 2019. "Mind the gap: implications of overseas investment for regional house price divergence in Britain," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 388-406, March.
    8. Brett Christophers, 2021. "A tale of two inequalities: Housing-wealth inequality and tenure inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(3), pages 573-594, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Ley, 2021. "A regional growth ecology, a great wall of capital and a metropolitan housing market," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(2), pages 297-315, February.
    2. Raco, Mike & Ward, Callum & Brill, Frances & Sanderson, Danielle & Freire-Trigo, Sonia & Ferm, Jess & Hamiduddin, Iqbal & Livingstone, Nicola, 2022. "Towards a virtual statecraft: housing targets and the governance of urban housing markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114315, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Frances Brill, 2022. "Governing investors and developers: Analysing the role of risk allocation in urban development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(7), pages 1499-1517, May.
    4. Phil Hubbard & Jon Reades & Hendrik Walter & Catrin Preston, 2024. "Shrinking homes? The geographies of small domestic properties in London, 2010–2021," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 51(5), pages 1137-1152, June.
    5. Jennifer Robinson & Fulong Wu & Phil Harrison & Zheng Wang & Alison Todes & Romain Dittgen & Katia Attuyer, 2022. "Beyond variegation: The territorialisation of states, communities and developers in large-scale developments in Johannesburg, Shanghai and London," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1715-1740, June.
    6. Panagiotis Petris & George Dotsis & Panayotis Alexakis, 2022. "Bubble tests in the London housing market: A borough level analysis," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 1044-1063, January.
    7. Hila Zaban, 2020. "The real estate foothold in the Holy Land: Transnational gentrification in Jerusalem," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(15), pages 3116-3134, November.
    8. Jennifer Robinson & Katia Attuyer, 2021. "Extracting Value, London Style: Revisiting the Role of the State in Urban Development," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 303-331, March.
    9. Enora Robin & Frances Brill, 2018. "The global politics of an urban age: creating 'cities for all' in the age of financialisation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-5, December.
    10. Edyta Marcinkiewicz & Filip Chybalski, 2022. "Income-Poor, Asset-Rich? The Role of Homeownership in Shaping the Welfare Position of the Elderly," LWS Working papers 38, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    11. Frances Brill, 2020. "Complexity and coordination in London’s Silvertown Quays: How real estate developers (re)centred themselves in the planning process," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 362-382, March.
    12. Jonathan Reades & Loretta Lees & Phil Hubbard & Guy Lansley, 2023. "Quantifying state-led gentrification in London: Using linked consumer and administrative records to trace displacement from council estates," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 810-827, June.
    13. White, Tim, 2024. "Beds for rent," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120046, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Edward Shepherd & Matthew Wargent, 2024. "Embedding the land market: Polanyi, urban planning and regulation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 905-926, May.
    15. Bin Chi & Adam Dennett & Thomas Oléron-Evans & Robin Morphet, 2021. "Shedding new light on residential property price variation in England: A multi-scale exploration," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(7), pages 1895-1911, September.
    16. Lin, Yang & Thackway, William & Soundararaj, Balamurugan & Eagleson, Serryn & Han, Hoon & Pettit, Christopher, 2024. "Transforming Urban Planning through Machine Learning: A Study on Planning Application Classification using Natural Language Processing," OSF Preprints fs76e, Center for Open Science.
    17. Jeanne Bomare & Ségal Le Guern Herry, 2022. "Will We Ever Be Able to Track Offshore Wealth? Evidence from the Offshore Real Estate Market in the UK," Working Papers hal-03811306, HAL.
    18. David Gray, 2018. "An application of two non-parametric techniques to the prices of British dwellings: An examination of cyclicality," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(10), pages 2286-2299, August.
    19. Jakub Galuszka, 2024. "BOATS AS HOUSING IN OXFORD, UK: Trajectories of Informality in a High‐Income Context," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 126-144, January.
    20. David Gray, 2019. "Medium-term cycles and housing: Is regional integration different?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(9), pages 1786-1800, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:3:p:961-978. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.