Issue - meetings

Report HPR2022/036

The Committee considered a report providing an update on various Article 4 Directions recently made or confirmed by the Council. The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) wrote to the Council in May 2022 to note that they had reviewed Bromley’s Class MA and Class ZA Article 4 Directions in accordance with new national policy and that they were not convinced that they complied with this new policy. As a result, DLUHC had invited the Council to reconsider the Directions, to ensure that the Article 4 Directions were proposed only where they would have wholly unacceptable adverse impacts and apply to the smallest geographic areas possible.

Officers had considered this request and prepared an updated methodology to reduce the areas, while ensuring that the rationale behind the Directions – to protect vitally important commercial space – still applied. The report presented sought endorsement of this methodology, which officers would then implement to determine the modified areas, and subsequently request that the Secretary of State (SoS) for DLUHC formally modifies the Article 4 Directions on this basis.

The Chairman advised that an Article 4 Direction did not stop development, however the Permitted Development (PD) rights were forfeited, and a formal planning application would need to be made, which added an extra layer of protection. The Head of Planning Policy and Strategy noted that the Council could only make or cancel Article 4 Directions, whereas the Secretary of State could modify them.

In response to questions, the Head of Planning Policy and Strategy advised that a specific meeting had been held with the officers from DLUHC who had sent the correspondence – they had been unable to clarify the concerns, which had not been elaborated on. Members’ frustrations were shared, as they would have liked the issues to be stated but unfortunately they had been left to speculate. With relation to PD rights that changed an office to residential accommodation, it was confirmed that these units would count towards the housing target. It was noted that in the reports recommending Article 4 Directions, the commentary had highlighted that removing PD rights may impact the housing supply. However, on balance, it had been considered that the protections Article 4 Directions provided outweighed this. A Member questioned what the next steps would be if the DLUHC did not accept the proposed methodology. The Head of Planning Policy and Strategy said that, in conjunction with the Director of Housing, Planning, Property and Regeneration and Portfolio Holder for Recreation, Renewal and Housing, a finalised set of areas to be modified, in line with the methodology, would be submitted. If the DLUHC responded and provided some clarification of the issues, this could be reported back to the Committee.

With regards to paragraph 3.16 of the report, the Head of Planning Policy and Strategy said that a housing scheme had been put forward for The Walnuts site. However, PD rights had different limitations and it was unlikely that the shop units would be changed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19