Council slams ministers for revoking Art 4 direction on office-to-flats conversions

The London Borough of Islington has reacted angrily to a decision by ministers to revoke an Article 4 direction that the council had made removing permitted development rights to convert properties from office to residential.

In July last year Islington became the first local authority in the country to issue such a direction, which was initially intended to cover the whole borough.

The council also led a judicial review challenge to the Government’s ‘office to residential’ changes that was dismissed by the High Court in December 2013.

In one of his last actions as Planning Minister last week (10 July), Nick Boles announced the revocation of Islington’s Article 4 direction just days before it was due to come into force on 15 July.

Boles said ministers had considered Islington’s further proposal for the Article 4 direction to apply to a reduced area but had concluded – in light of the tests set out in national policy and guidance – that it remained “unacceptably expansive and unjustified”.

He added that ministers had taken into account the background of the significant need for new housing in London in particular when deciding to cancel the direction.

The Planning Minister said: “This revocation should send a strong message to the housing industry that we will act to provide certainty and confidence in our change of use reforms, supporting new investment in homes and helping bring underused property back into productive use as housing.”

But the council described the move as an “ill-founded, eleventh-hour intervention which will mean Islington loses out on jobs and affordable homes”.

It claimed that the direction was necessary “to protect valuable business and office space across Islington from being lost as developers seek to profit from high house prices - and to ensure that any conversions that go ahead include affordable housing”.

Cllr James Murray, the council’s executive member for housing and development, said: "I'm very frustrated by the planning minister's decision to stop us doing what's right for Islington.

"We're already seeing small businesses and charities being evicted from offices to make way for bedsits. People in Islington are losing out on jobs, affordable housing, and any community benefit.”

He added: "I'm also very disappointed that the planning minister waited until the eleventh hour to overturn our decision, refused to accept a compromise we offered, and in his reasoning got his figures wrong.”

In February 2014, Boles told Parliament that he felt Islington had applied its Article 4 direction “disproportionately”. He wrote to the council asking for it to reconsider the geographical area covered.

Islington accused the minister of subsequently failing to enter into a dialogue, even after it offered to restrict the direction to certain clusters.

The council said it only received a reply on the same date that the minister made his announcement (10 July).

It added that 68 office buildings in the borough had already obtained 'prior approval' for conversion to residential since the law changed on 30 May 2013, with 11 further applications submitted.

“The total loss of office space is around 45,000 square metres - which equates to around 3,000 jobs,” it claimed. No affordable housing had been created either, the council said.