RIBA president Alan Jones has called for an urgent review of the government’s permitted development rights free-for-all.

Ministers’ “ongoing obsession” with creating aa planning free-for-all would have severe consequences for England’s beleaguered high streets and would lead to a new generation of substandard housing, he warned.

Yesterday communities and housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced a raft of new planning rules allowing the conversion of a vast array of high street premises into housing without planning permission. They add to the existing permitted development (PD) rights that have already been announced. He said they would revitalise shopping areas.

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