On 20 July 2020, the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2020 (SI 2020/756) (GPDAO 2020) was made and came into force on 31 August 2020. Article 4(2) of the GPDAO 2020 amends the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (SI 2015/596) by introducing a new Class ZA (Demolition of buildings and construction of new dwelling houses).
Class ZA allows for the demolition of either:
(A) a single detached building (in existence on 12 March 2020) that was used either for
(i) office use falling within class B1(a), (ii) research and development within Class B1(b), or (iii) an industrial process within Class B1(c) of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987, or
(B) a single detached purpose-built block of flats and replacement (within the same footprint but potentially with additional storeys) by
(A) a purpose-built detached house, or (B) a single purpose built detached block of flats.
A number of restrictions still apply – for example the old building must:
- Not be listed, nor have a footprint exceeding 1,000m2.
- Not be higher (including masts and antennae) than 18 metres.
- Have been constructed on or before 31st December 1989.
- Have been vacant for at least six months before the date of the application for prior approval.
There are requirements also to obtain the LPA’s prior approval to various matters including eg – external appearance, impact on neighbouring amenity, light, contamination etc. It remains to be seen given this requirement for prior approval and given the nature of the constraints – whether developers will significantly change tack or will stick with the previously tried and tested planning application process.
For more information, please contact Robin Sharp, Senior Associate at DTM Legal LLP. robin.sharp@dtmlegal.com
