{"id":22470,"date":"2019-04-26T17:22:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T16:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=22470"},"modified":"2019-04-26T17:22:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T16:22:32","slug":"pdr-for-office-conversions-in-england-under-review-as-harlow-mp-describes-office-block-re-housing-as-social-cleansing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=22470","title":{"rendered":"PDR for office conversions in England under review as Harlow MP describes office block re-housing as ‘social cleansing’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"website\"The government is reviewing its policy of allowing the conversion of offices into homes without planning permission (or permitted development rights: PDR) as Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said he would be looking \u2018at where the burden lies\u2019 with regards to the pressures and costs involved when re-housing families from London.<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

BBC News writes:<\/p>\n

[The review] comes after Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, described the practice as \u2018social cleansing\u2019. A BBC report revealed homeless families were re-housed in Harlow office blocks. Mr Halfon told Parliament: \u2018This policy has not worked. It has allowed landlords to build ghettos and allowed London councillors to socially cleanse their most vulnerable families to places like Harlow.\u2019 He added the town had not been given additional resources to \u2018deal with this extra burden\u2019 to provide more doctors, schools, social services, and policing. The MP urged Mr Brokenshire to change the conversion rules.<\/p>\n

The BBC found hundreds of families were being rehoused in Harlow by councils in and around London in office blocks and on industrial estates, often living next to drug addicts and ex-convicts. Some of these residents told the BBC of feeling isolated and having to walk 40 minutes to the nearest shop or school. ‘I don’t want my kids thinking this is normal’<\/p>\n

Melanie Smith, who lives in former office block Terminus House in the town, said: \u2018It is very scary.\u2019 She and her two sons have a one-room flat where a sofa doubles as her bed, a few feet from the oven and sink and her sons’ two beds. Caridon Property, owner of Terminus House, said it delivered a good service and \u2018it does all it can to keep people safe\u2019.<\/p>\n

Developers are able to turn offices into residential premises without planning permission under a change to permitted development rights in 2013.<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government is reviewing its policy of allowing the conversion of offices into homes without planning permission (or permitted development rights: PDR) as Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said he would be looking \u2018at where the burden lies\u2019 with regards to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22472,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22470\/revisions\/22472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}