Recommendation 7

The Government should clarify why it considers it necessary to amend paragraph 53 of the National Planning Policy Framework, and set out how the new wording addresses the issues it is seeking to resolve. In addition, we recommend that the Government monitor whether the changes to paragraph 53 give councils the power they need to protect high streets and town centres from permitted development rights for change of use to residential. If the evidence suggests they do not, the Government should amend the wording again to give councils greater freedom to restrict the use of PDRs in certain areas. We also recommend that the Government allow councils to apply Article 4 directions more quickly without having to pay compensation to developers. (Paragraph 44) Impact on high streets and town centres