Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward proposals to prevent businesses from being evicted by office-to-home conversions in (a) mixed business and residential areas and (b) areas not deemed as requiring regeneration.

Permitted development rights that allow the change of offices to residential use were introduced in May 2013. These rights are contributing to a more efficient use of our existing building stock, and are providing badly needed new homes such as studios and one-bedroom flats for young people, using brownfield land. This market-led approach reflects that business patterns are changing with new technology: as a whole, while there is increasing demand for new housing due to a growing population, modern firms need less physical office space than they used to.

My Department is considering responses to the technical consultation on planning that was published on 31 July. We will publish the Government’s response in due course.