Recommendation 25

Housing has a valuable role to play in mixed-use high streets, but we are not convinced that extending permitted development rights from Use Class E to residential is the right way to address either the housing shortage or the regeneration of high streets and town centres. We are concerned that the Government’s current approach may introduce so much flexibility as to create an imbalance between housing and other high street uses. We are not persuaded that the Government has sufficient evidence to justify extending permitted development rights in this way, without any pilots. As part of the review of permitted development rights which we recommended in our recent report on the same subject, the Government should include an evaluation of their impact on high streets and town centres, including Article 4 directions. (Paragraph 117) Business rates and taxation