Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect on (a) local infrastructure and (b) human health of the conversion of offices into small flats from 16 square metres in size.

We expect all housing to be of good quality and to avoid a race to the bottom in size. Building regulations are there to ensure new homes are safe, secure and sustainable.

The White Paper 'Fixing our broken housing market' is clear that it is important that we deliver a range of housing types and tenures to meet a range of housing needs. As part of this the permitted development right for the change of use from office to residential is making a valuable contribution to the delivery of new homes, having delivered over 12,800 homes in the year to March 2016.