Object

Representation ID: 44813

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Consortium of Developers

Number of people: 4

Agent: Turley Associates

Wolverhampton City Centre upper floor conversions

5.61 Being unallocated sites, the upper floor conversions source of supply comprises a windfall allowance.

5.62 The principle behind reliance on a significant windfall from ‘upper floor conversions’ in Wolverhampton presumably comes from the NPPF reference at paragraph 71 which states that any allowance can consider expected future trends.

5.63 Following consultation in December 2020, the Government proposed a number of amendments to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (GPDO) which have now been laid before Parliament in the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) Order 2021. The changes include Class MA business and commercial to residential permitted development rights, which in practice provide permitted development (‘PD’) from Class E to Class C3 residential. The rights took effect from 1st August 2021.

5.64 There is no evidence to show what delivery has materialised from this source in previous years and there can be no up-to-date and reliable data to show the potential from this source as a result of the expansion of the above PD rights.

5.65 Paragraph 71 also states that where an allowance is to be made for windfall sites as part of anticipated supply, there should be compelling evidence that they will provide a reliable source of supply.

5.66 To this end, the NPPF clarifies that windfall allowances should be realistic, with regard had to the strategic housing land availability assessment and historic windfall delivery rates. There is no evidence in the SHLAA or any data on historic windfall delivery rates of this nature in the Black Country.

5.67 There is no compelling evidence currently provided that a windfall allowance of this nature will provide the supply claimed.

5.68 There are limitations on the scale, conditions to the rights (including that the building must be vacant for 3 months prior to application) and the take-up/market impacts of this change remain to be seen in practice.

5.69 If upper floor conversions are to form part of the Councils’ supply, then they should be considered a part of the windfall allowance, which is identified as a separate source.

5.70 We suggest removal of this source entirely (812 homes), as no compelling evidence has been provided to demonstrate that this will constitute a source of supply in the plan period, nor can possibly be available given the time elapsed since the relevant policy change has been in place. If evidence is provided that a realistically consistent source of windfall will arise from upper floor conversions, then they should be considered as part of the main windfall allowance.