Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to enable and encourage local authorities to adopt article 4 directions in respect of houses of multiple occupation by making that process more efficient.

The Government has no plans to remove the permitted development rights that allow for change of use between class C(3) dwelling houses and a class C(4) houses in multiple occupation. We do not hold data on the number of dwelling houses that have converted to houses in multiple occupation since 1 October 2010. Paragraph 53 of the National Planning Policy Framework confirms that the use of Article 4 directions to remove national permitted development rights should be limited to situations where it is necessary to protect local amenity or the well-being of the area.