Housing: Permitted Development Rights

Lord Blunkett Excerpts

Wednesday 18th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

It is very important that we focus on the facilities in local areas, but this is a commercial market and where shops are not able to achieve the market they need, permitted development regulations will occur. In reviewing the PDRs, that is one of the issues we need to focus on—whether any further protections are necessary, particularly for assets such as rural assets.

[Lord Blunkett (Lab)]

Referring back to the original Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, can my noble friend confirm that the code will include noise insulation as well as other measures that are crucial to good health, on the grounds that noise nuisance can be deeply detrimental to the well-being of individuals and lead to much anti-social behaviour?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

There are a wide range of issues that we need to think about in terms of permitted development, and noise nuisance is one of them. All new homes are required to meet current building regulations, including on fire safety, irrespective of the route to planning permission. However, some building regulations differ or do not apply where homes are delivered through material change of use rather than new build. That applies whether homes are delivered through permitted development or following an application for planning permission. All these issues—noise, fire safety and so on—need to be considered in the light of permitted development regulations.