Planning rules governing what is and is not permitted when carrying out developments on homes in England are being relaxed to encourage take up of the Green Deal, Energy and Climate Minister Greg Barker said, as The Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) warns about the impact on ordinary places.
The changes affect current technical guidance on ‘Permitted Development for Householders’. This now states that The installation of solid wall insulation constitutes an improvement rather than an enlargement or extension to the dwellinghouse’ and is not caught by key provisions there.’
IHBC Chair Jo Evans said: ‘Of course we welcome specific, and necessary, exemptions for listed buildings and conservation areas, but this may be the kiss of death for the character of unlisted historic buildings and areas of traditional housing.’
‘It is those areas of traditional, unlisted housing that are outside conservation areas that could be affected. Usually there are attractive because they might have retained a degree of cohesion as a group and even if the rouge window or door appears these are changes that can be reversed at a later stage. External solid wall insulation would have a greater impact in the street scene and it is the likelihood that it would not be reversed at a later stage that is of concern.’
IHBC Director Sean O’Reilly added: ‘Our concerns also reflect the substantial practical reservations specialists have expressed over such external insulation. These include the diverse technical concerns over longer term impacts on fabric, as well as questions around the real benefits such insulation can bring when applied to traditional, pre-1919, buildings.’
‘Indeed government supported guidance, funded by the Department for Energy and Climate Change no less, has highlighted the very failure of the industry delivering the insulation service to deal with technical matters fundamental to traditional building technologies. That is all not to say that the planning system is the best way to deal with these concerns, but as things stood it was about all people had to help them’.
Barker
Speaking of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), Barker said his department had been able to relax the rules governing external solid wall insulation to make it easier to roll out the Green Deal. This means external solid wall insulation will no longer constitute an ‘enlargement’ or ‘extension’ to a property, but instead will be viewed as an ‘improvement’.
The changes mean that households that are looking to make energy efficiency improvements under the Green Deal will be able to invest in external solid wall insulation without a planning application, with exemptions in the case of listed buildings and conservation areas. Planning will not present any problem for the vast majority of people intending to put solid wall insulation on their houses,’ Barker said.
Separately, it has been noted that field research carried out on behalf of the Energy Saving Trust has shown that there is great disparity across authorities on interpretation of the planning rules concerning external solid wall insulation. The rules have also been criticised for adding unnecessary costs, with some planning authorities even requiring scaled drawings from architects before making any kind of approvals.
For the updated guidance allowing the relaxation see: LINK
For the DECC-based advice collated by the Sustainable Traditonal Buildings Aliance (STBA) see: LINK
