Commercial property turn into residential with no planning permission needed.

[Deleted User]

harryhound wrote: »

I got a job that involved me shipping cargo from central USA to a town outside Manchester for reprocessing and distribution throughout Europe.
Liverpool was already suffering as Britain's major trading market became Europe (ie joining Common Market etc.).
Liverpool docks was a nightmare - strikes - no news for days on end - difficult customs and excise (the so called Bar side clearance - you had to find the right bar in which to get the paperwork signed off).
Dock side warehouses used as storage because the shareholders of the docks were local merchants. Strange break bulk charges on what should have been "house to house" container deliveries.

I switched the whole business to Felixstowe - everything done in one place Trelawney House - banking - customs clearance agent all under one roof. Delivery to Manchester of 40' container within 48 hours of vessel docking for a delivery charge of 15 quid plus a fiver for doing the paperwork (circa 1972). More to the point I could get a Telex from USA saying the truck had just left and I tell the reprocessing plant to the day when the delivery would arrive.
No more emergency shipments via Manchester Airport at vast expense in time and money.

Liverpool docks was dead in the water and went bust.

Yes Liverpool and several other ports were killed off by the advent of containers and union action.

Before containers you needed a lot of man power to load/unload. Containers got rid of all that. So the unions went on strike and they lost even more business to the container ports.

StevieJ

harryhound wrote: »

I got a job that involved me shipping cargo from central USA to a town outside Manchester for reprocessing and distribution throughout Europe.
Liverpool was already suffering as Britain's major trading market became Europe (ie joining Common Market etc.).
Liverpool docks was a nightmare - strikes - no news for days on end - difficult customs and excise (the so called Bar side clearance - you had to find the right bar in which to get the paperwork signed off).
Dock side warehouses used as storage because the shareholders of the docks were local merchants. Strange break bulk charges on what should have been "house to house" container deliveries.

I switched the whole business to Felixstowe - everything done in one place Trelawney House - banking - customs clearance agent all under one roof. Delivery to Manchester of 40' container within 48 hours of vessel docking for a delivery charge of 15 quid plus a fiver for doing the paperwork (circa 1972). More to the point I could get a Telex from USA saying the truck had just left and I tell the reprocessing plant to the day when the delivery would arrive.
No more emergency shipments via Manchester Airport at vast expense in time and money.

Liverpool docks was dead in the water and went bust.

Why didn't you just send it down the MSC like everyone else?

Poshbird

buglawton wrote: »

There is a half empty light industrial park (quite nice looking/modern) near me, in the centre of prime residential area, walkable to rail station. Wonder how long before some of it becomes housing?

Buy some units quick while they a still cheap. Soon commercial will go up and residential will come down to meet it.

Poshbird

There are so many boarded up shops round my way, its mainly due to big supermarkets putting them out of business. Be great to see them all become houses and flats in the coming years.

buglawton

UK - too much unused office space because there are no jobs for people to work in them.
So have to convert them to houses do at least all the jobless people have somewhere to live!

Poshbird

buglawton wrote: »

UK - too much unused office space because there are no jobs for people to work in them.
So have to convert them to houses do at least all the jobless people have somewhere to live!

The point is more supply and less demand for housing going forward mean downward pressure on house prices.

Poshbird

buglawton wrote: »

UK - too much unused office space because there are no jobs for people to work in them.
So have to convert them to houses do at least all the jobless people have somewhere to live!

It would be great to see some of these empty office blocks turned into flats. Of course the BTLers would not like the average rents falling around the country even more.

Is there any solid information released yet about the changes to turn commercial into residential without planning permission need?

harryhound

StevieJ wrote: »

Why didn't you just send it down the MSC like everyone else?

I did look into the "Manchester Liners" option for using the Manchester Ship Canal & docks (Now a shops, offices and flats centre.) They were more expensive and less convenient. [Obvious the 15 quid for a 40' delivery to Manchester must have been cross subsidised to get the business].

Have a look at this and you will realise that the dockers and the ship owners deserved each other, when it comes to feathering nests and ripping off the customer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Liners

The American partner into Liverpool was "US Lines" (RIP), who had a problem joining "conferences" under the US anti trust regulations, but they still had to deal with the (then) M@fia run longshoremen's union.

US Lines fell victim to the hubris of the elderly boss of Sealand. Itself taken over when the end of the cold war resulted in much reduced activity by its major customer the USA Department of Defense.

The unloading of ships in California is still not a 24/7 activity, as it is here in the UK, owing to union power and the USA shipping industry (like the UK one) has largely gone out of business.

This is from the FT - you need to sign up to read it:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/024650d6-3f92-11e0-a1ba-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1O2Nxr8oc

[I have a feeling that "CMA CGM Group of France" is about as French as Jaguar cars is British:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Saad%C3%A9 ]

In some parts of the world, owning floating assets means that they and their "bowl of rice a day" crews can simply sail away to more welcoming regimes, should local politicians try to extract too much tax.

I have a feeling that my early shipments into Felixstowe were delivered by this beast, a piggy back from Uncle Sam, while British dockers were busy picketing the likes of Vesty's Dagenham Cold Storage and Jack Dash was educating himself from the pages of the FT.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Cornhusker_State_%28T-ACS-6%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Export-Isbrandtsen_Lines

[These crane ships were popular in Africa as a solid sea side block of concrete, to act as a quay, is a whole lot more difficult to blow up or vandalise than a container crane.]

Now where were we? Ah yes converting disused commercial buildings into homes - Like Kentish oast houses?