Offices: Change of Use
(asked on 22nd February 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an (a) estimate of the number of councils converting office blocks to accommodation through permitted development rights and (b) assessment of the suitability of that practice for tackling homelessness.
Answered by
Felicity Buchan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department publishes data on how many applications for prior approval for the change of use to residential are able to proceed and how many homes the permitted development rights have delivered.
The figures are readily available online and can be found at Housing delivery Table 123 and Application data PDR 1.
The department does not collect data on the type of buildings local authorities use as temporary accommodation, for more information on the temporary accommodation data please see here.