The owner of an east London town hall has secured approval to convert it into 200 homes without the need for planning permission – to the fury of the borough’s elected mayor.

Tower Hamlets council, which has been particularly vocal on the issue of office-to-resi conversions, is powerless to act because the project falls within the scope of permitted development.

The council is due to vacate the eight-storey 1990s Docklands office block it currently leases as its HQ in four years’ time, when it will move into a new base at the former Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. AHMM won planning permission for that project in March.

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