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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Jessica Murray Social affairs correspondent

Ministers urged to put brakes on offices in England being turned into homes

Imperial Apartments, a three-storey office block that was converted into 466 flats under permitted development rights.
Imperial Apartments, a three-storey office block that was converted into 466 flats under permitted development rights. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian

Dozens of organisations have signed an open letter calling on the government to scrap office-to-residential conversions in England, which analysis has found led to the loss of almost 28,000 affordable homes.

Local government campaigners, housing providers and homelessness charities have all joined the call to abolish some permitted development rights (PDR), which grant automatic planning permission to building projects and are often used to convert office blocks into housing.

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