Planning Architects have welcomed the government's long-awaited office-to-residential conversions planning boost, despite concerns it will do little to boost housing numbers. From the end of this month, conversions from class B1(a) offices of any size to C3 residential will become a permitted development right in all but 17 UK local authorities. Manchester and most of central London will be exempt. The controversial relaxation of the rules is part of a raft of government-backed measures intended to unleash the 'huge untapped potential'of derelict buildings by reducing bureaucratic costs and delays.
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