Converting retail shop to residential.Planning?

Gastines3

General enquiry. A friend has a 3 story property in a parade of 10 units, maisonette above ground floor shop.,3 of the parade are now used as offices.two have been converted to self contained flats some time ago,approx 10 years ago. His shop has not been viable for some time and he now wishes to cease trading,retire and is thinking of converting his shop into a self-contained flat.the area being just under 70 sq.mtrs. Am I right in thinking that the planning policy,encouraged by Government, is now making it 'easier' to obtain Planning permission for this change of use? Any suggestions on how to find out if this is possible before going to the expense of Architect,plans,building regs etc. At this stage he is just trying to work out his options.

eddddy

Hi Gastines

Most local planning authorities let you make an "Informal Planning Enquiry" or "Pre-application enquiry". They will probably charge a fee for this.

Essentially, you write a letter saying "Would I get planning permission for...", and they write a letter in reply.

Try to give as much info as possible in your letter (sketches, photos of the shop, photos of other shops which have already been converted, state that shop is not viable, etc), and ask all the questions you can think of.

If you think of other questions later, you may have to write another letter and pay another fee.

bigadaj

Initially you don't even need to do that. You can ring up and chat with a planning officer, or go into their offices if you've arranged a meeting. The planners are generally objective and will give a good indication of whether planning might be garnets if you give them a good description, the main problem is that is it went to committee then you are at the whim of some retired people who have little better to do than complain about the modern world, planners are objective, councillors are not and it's the latter that often make the final decision.

Gastines3

Thanks for replies. Will get him to gather as much info as possible and then put it to planning.

daveyjp

He needs to call the Council and see if they have implemented a Local Development Order for his area. This is the new regime you mention.