On the 5th March 2018, Dominic Raab, the Housing Minister announced changes to permitted development rights as follows:- CLASS Q for the conversion of agricultural buildings to residential dwellings. This new legislation came into effect from the 6th April.
Previously, a maximum of 3 residential properties could be converted from agricultural use, with a maximum floorspace of 450 square meters in total.
However, the new changes will permit the following:
- Up to 3 ‘larger homes’ with a maximum floorspace of 465metres square.
- Up to 5 ‘smaller homes’ each with less than 100 square metres of floor space.
- A combination of the above, with no more than 5 homes, of which a maximum of 3 can be “larger homes”
Additionally, changes to Government guidance for Class Q permitted development rights confirmed that it is no longer a specific requirement for the building to be structurally strong enough to support the necessary conversion works. Which suggests that reasonable structural reinforcement works would be acceptable as part of the conversion. Also, internal works do not constitute development and so local planning authorities may not be able to refuse an application based on the extent of the internal works. However, there is still no firm definition of when ‘conversion’ becomes a ‘rebuild’ and so professional advice should be sought to identify the chances of success for each case.
Agricultural business:- There has been an increase in the size of new agricultural buildings allowed under permitted development rights for holdings over 5ha in size. Previously permitted development rights allowed the construction of a new agricultural building up to 465 square meters, this has now increased to 1,000 square meters.
If you require advice relating to this please contact the Rostons team.