Insurance company Zurick UK warns that the trend to Permitted Development (PD) conversions could mean that potentially “89,500 commercial conversions could become uninhabitable.”
Zurich UK maintains that the current appetite for converting commercial buildings into residential homes could be resulting in subpar living conditions that do not leave the conversions in a “climate futureproof state.”
Data obtained through government planning sources shows there’s been a 20 percent year-on-year increase in commercial to residential planning applications under PD rules prompted by the increasing demand for residential accommodation and the reduced demand for office space.
Figures obtained by Zurick UK show that since 2015 over 89,500 domiciles have been created, desperately needed homes that have been developed from former commercial buildings.
However, welcome as the new accommodation is in congested and undersupplied cities like London, studies undertaken by academics at the London School of Economics (LSE) reveal that many of these conversions leave living spaces at risk of serious overheating due to future projections for climate change.
While buildings under permitted development must comply with current building regulations in most respects, crucially they are not required to meet the standard that new builds must meet in respect of overheating.
Recent changes to the permitted development rules allowing commercial buildings to be converted into residential homes have further eased the requirements on building sizes for conversions, bringing more buildings into the mix, but Zurich UK is putting out a warning that these conversions must be done properly otherwise developers will be creating thousands of homes that are unfit for future climate conditions.
In a world that is steadily warming, cities and urban centres face an even greater burden of higher temperatures than do rural areas. Cities hold the biggest and densest populations, so exposure to high temperatures is amplified by the urban heat island effect. This is where buildings, concrete, paving, roads and other infrastructure trap the heat in. Population density, air pollution, poverty and geography further increase the vulnerability of many people living in typical office conversions in urban centres.
While Britain in 2024 remained relatively cool in comparison to the hot summer of 2022, temperatures across Europe reached sweltering and sustained high temperatures this year, and while Britain avoided the worst of that, a continuing pattern of higher maximum temperatures in summer will continue to affect UK cities in future years.
According to the Met Office, 2022 was no fluke, 2022 and 2023 being the first and second warmest years on record respectively. The top ten warmest years since 1884 all occurred after 2002.
Planning applications under PD continue at a pace with government planning data showing that the number of applications submitted to convert commercial offices into residential units in England has increased from 1,025 in 2022 to 1,235 in 2023, that’s a 20 percent increase.
This trend followed a similar 20 percent application increase back in 2020 to 2021, with developers taking advantage of the lower values of pandemic-abandoned office space, to pick them up cheap.
In addition, residential conversions have been taking place through applications that include those originally in use class E. Class E is an all-encompassing class introduced in September 2020 for commercial, business and service uses. It covers the former use classes of A1 (shops), A2 (financial and professional), A3 (restaurants and cafes) as well as parts of D1 (non-residential institutions) and D2 (assembly and leisure) and puts them all into one new use class. See Permitted development rights and changes to the Use Classes Order
The new Labour government has announced the intention to build 1.5 million new homes over the term of this government, an ambitious target which will be extremely difficult to meet without the addition of developments such as these commercial to residential conversions.
Therefore, the government has every incentive to encourage these conversions. But while converting unused, underutilised and often older commercial buildings into residential housing, the conversions are rarely straightforward. Most were designed for a cooler climate than expected in the years ahead, therefore they may lack appropriate ventilation, cooling systems and external shading.
Zurick UK fears, based on the research evidence, that these conversions could turn into thousands of homes that are simply too hot in summer to cope with the more frequent heat waves expected, and consequently this has a seriously adverse effect on the health of the occupants.
Many of these commercial buildings are in cities and urban settings where heat is retained and builds in the surrounding infrastructure, resulting in the “urban heat island” effect. Not only are temperatures higher, heavy rain and flash floods are a greater risk in these locations.
Given the difficulties involved in converting buildings designed for commercial use, never intended as residential homes, often results in plumbing systems for multiple toilets and bathrooms being substandard or inadequate in some ways, increasing the risks of insurance claims for water leaks.
This is an obvious concern for insurance companies like Zurick UK as a water leak in a high-rise block has the potential to do far more damage than one in a single house.
Conversions are often undertaken to produce low-cost housing with inadequate facilities affecting the vulnerable disproportionately
Research at the London School of Economics’ The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment finds that half of all UK homes could be at risk of overheating in hot summers. While new builds regulations cover temperature control requirements, this is not currently the case for existing housing stock or conversions as discussed.
Zurich’s Major Loss Property Claims Manager, Paul Redington says:
“As legislation continues to evolve, enabling under-utilised properties to be repurposed to help ease the housing shortage, the number of office-to-residential conversions has continued to rise.
“Increasing the UK’s housing stock is vital and understandably high on the government’s agenda, however it's important that conversions are well-designed and well-built – for example, including cooling features to avoid creating homes that overheat and suffer other issues, such as the escape of water.
“As more intense and frequent heat waves become a dominant feature of the UK’s summertime, developers need to ensure ventilation and shading are considered to create homes that are safe and resilient to our changing climate.”
Senior Specialist in Planning & Development at RICS, Tony Mulhall, says:
“The continuing pre-occupation in the commercial property sector with what are frequently referred to as ‘stranded assets’ - properties that do not meet future regulatory efficiency standards or market expectations - is increasing pressure to find alternative uses for these properties.
“Government policies and standards on embodied carbon make building adaptation the main route to reuse, and, in a country experiencing a severe housing shortage and increasing residential property values, conversion to residential is an obvious consideration which the Government has facilitated through various regulatory relaxations.
“It is important to enable the re-use of buildings no longer needed for their original purpose to a use for which there is a fundamental need, but the buildings need to be fundamentally suitable for such conversions. Additionally, the residential standards applied need to ensure we don’t create problems in the future, especially with increasing temperatures predicted.
“Natural light and ventilation are just two of the key standards that need to be met but there is one often neglected - direct access to external space such as a balcony. Direct outdoor space will become increasingly important as people grow older and less mobile; however for developers relying on ‘Permitted Development Rights’ to convert, this would draw them back into the planning permission regime - something they would probably wish to avoid.”
[main image credit - Brett Sayles]
Tags:
Comments