Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2024 to Question 39650 on Housing: Construction, whether quarterly data on planning applications and housing starts and completions classifies the approval of a retrospective planning application of the conversion of a house into an HMO as a new dwelling.

Within the Department’s quarterly official statistics on planning applications, an application for the conversion of a house into a house in multiple occupation (HMO) would not be classified as an application for a new dwelling. Applications within Use Class C3 are classified as new dwellings, whereas applications for conversion to an HMO are within Use Class C4 (three to six residents) or as sui generis (more than six residents), both of which are classified as being within All Other Developments. The relevant official guidance is published and available on gov.uk here.

Whether or not a planning application is retrospective does not affect how it is classified.

Within the Department’s quarterly official statistics on housing starts and completions, the conversion of an existing house into an HMO would not count as a newly built dwelling.

The official guidance for the data return is that new build dwelling figures should exclude dwellings created through conversion of existing dwellings and by change of use such as commercial buildings to residential. Extensions and alterations to existing dwellings should be excluded. The relevant official guidance is published and available on gov.uk here.