HC Deb 11 November 1980 vol 992 cc177-8W
Mr. Chapman

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he intends to announce the outcome of the consultation exercise on his proposals for relaxing the general development order.

Mr. Heseltine

I issued this year two sets of proposals for relaxing planning controls by amending the General Development Order 1977. These have been the subject of separate consultation exercises. The first of these concerned planning controls over minor development. Having considered the views expressed I have decided to modify the proposals in order to provide safeguards against unneighbourly developments.

Briefly, the proposals now are:

  1. i. Householders to be allowed to extend their houses by up to 15 per cent. or 70 cubic metres if greater—without needing to make a planning application. The current limits are 10 per cent. or 50 cubic metres. The existing maximum limit of 115 cubic metres will be unchanged. This relaxation will not apply to terraced properties. In addition, a planning application will be required for extensions above ground floor level which are within two metres of the site boundary, and also for extensions which would result in 178 more than 50 per cent. of the garden being built over.
  2. ii. Private garages—and coach houses—only to count towards the limit on house extensions if they are within 5 metres of the house. Otherwise they will be treated in the same way as other outbuildings. In-filling of the 5 metre gap without a planning application will not be allowed. The earlier proposal to treat stables and horseboxes similarly has been dropped.
  3. iii. The limit for permitted extensions to industrial buildings to be raised from 10 per cent. to 20 per cent. This to be subject to a maximum increase in floor area of 750 square metres instead of 500 square metres as at present. A planning application will be required, however, for any extension within 5 metres of the site boundary.

There will be no relaxation of planning controls in national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and existing conservation areas.

We anticipate that the changes will achieve a worthwhile reduction in the load on the planning machine in England and Wales, enabling local authorities to reduce expenditure and concentrate on processing the more important applications more quickly and efficiently. At the same time the safeguards will help to minimise the risks of unsuitable and unneighbourly development.

A second consultation exercise has concerned a proposal to allow a greater flexibility of use for small industrial premises. No planning application would be needed to change from light industrial to warehouse use or vice versa for premises of 235 square metres and below. The proposal was one of a number announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his last Budget statement to encourage the provision of premises suitable for small firms.

As a result of the consultation exercise, I have decided to proceed with this proposal.

There will, however be an additional provision to overcome a potential technical anomaly: the general development order already gives a general permission for changes of use from the "General Industrial"category to"Light Industrial". Small firms will therefore be allowed to change from general industrial to warehouse use without passing through the intermediate stage of light industrial use. The reverse will not apply.

We intend to incorporate both sets of proposals within a General Development (Amendment) Order to be laid before the House shortly.