The government report Living with Beauty, released by the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission in January 2020 calls for more industry action to recycle existing buildings that improve local communities. According to the CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England), there are more than 18,200 brownfield sites in the UK, covering in the excess of 26,000 hectares of land. Even allowing for a relatively low housing density of 41 homes per hectare, England has sufficient brownfield land to build more than 1 million new homes*.Clearview Developments, a boutique property company with headquarters in Surrey, is becoming an expert in the rejuvenation of existing buildings into housing stock but warns that planning bureaucracy can increase a scheme’s financial risk. As a result, traditional developers may deem the restoration of old properties necessary but impossible to realise from a business point of view.
Jason Tema, Director at Clearview Developments, comments: “A key problem is that existing buildings hide construction challenges that are only uncovered during the building process itself. Frequently, these force the developer to having to amend the project’s design, making the existing planning permission somewhat invalid. To be able to complete the scheme, certain changes require the developer to apply for updated planning consent.”
This can lead to a lengthy process of up to 16 weeks as the developer now has to mobilise the architect, the planning consultant, provide updated addendum consultant reports, wait for the council to validate the application and wait for determination after the consultation period. This wait creates a huge burden on the feasibility of a scheme, jeopardising its realisation but also putting a huge financial burden on the developer.
Effectively, this means that the developer faces having to service interest costs for an additional three to four and possibly beyond 6 months, depending on how sensitive the building is. Furthermore, there may also be increased costs with contractors and subcontractors due to the plan changes and building delay.
Tema continues: “Whilst waiting for planning consent, the developer’s hands are tied. Given that the company has lending on the scheme, the developer can’t make the necessary changes without the updated written consent because he or she would be in breach of the lending terms. At the same time, the developer can’t proceed with the build if the required change is a critical path item in the scheme’s overall build programme.
“We strongly believe that the reconstruction of abandoned buildings can have a significantly positive impact on the UK’s housing shortage and we are very proud of what we have developed as we have seen first-hand how we have rejuvenated communities. To encourage more developers to take on restoration projects, the government needs to introduce steps that shorten the wait for minor amendment planning permissions under s73 of the Town & Country Planning Act; especially if a previous consent was already granted.”
Clearview Developments has most recently transformed a former NatWest Bank in Tunbridge Wells into seven modern luxury apartments via a series of four separate planning consents. Named The Old Bank, the property stood empty for over 12 years and was deemed ‘too difficult of a project’ by other developers; mostly due to the structural challenges which required the team to penetrate 1,500 inches thick walls of the subjacent vault chambers of the former bank.
“We have essentially surgically reconfigured the entire structure with new columns lowered in from the roof down to the ground floor to accommodate new beams to accommodate the residential loads and create beautiful open-plan kitchen-living-dining areas in the conversion element. As builder-developers with our own in-house construction arm, we are incredibly proud to be able to deliver an unrivalled premium quality as standard for our end users,” Tema says.
