Planners, architects, surveyors and chartered construction professionals have all strongly condemned the government’s decision to press ahead with the creation of a raft of new permitted development rights.

The new rules, which include a right for developers to demolish vacant office and industrial premises and rebuild them as homes, were branded “disgraceful” by the Royal Institute of British Architects, while the Royal Town Planning Institute described them as a “serious error”.

The government has pushed ahead with introducing the rights despite most of the changes being opposed in previous consultations, and despite the conclusions of a government-commissioned review, published yesterday, which found that previous permitted development rights had created significantly worse quality homes.

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