An architect told a friend that there was some change in the regs due in a couple of years which will make loft conversions "more difficult", so he should get on with it now.
Has anyone heard of this?
I was under the impression that the government was rather pushing councils to ease-up due to the housing shortage.
There has been recent building reg changes requiring firedoors onto the escape route, instead of self-closers. And the planning permission is easing up a bit for simple extensions. But don't confuse building regs and planning permission - 2 different things.
I don't know about future changes though. I would be interested to hear about this.
Simon.
Already happened IIUC
Well sort of - they claimed to be making planning applications "simpler" and "less complicated". What that translates to is that you will now need planning permission for the majority of loft conversions whereas before you did not!
The building regs have also changed in respect of fire protection (you need fire doors on all doors that open onto the escape route now - but don't need self closers. The requirements for means of escape windows has either gone or been changed)
In article , John Rumm Sun, 25 May 2008 17:31:19 writes
That sounds as if it might fit the rumour but the architect was talking about changes in a year or two.
Is it still possible to do a loft extension without planning permission under certain conditions or has that already gone?
In article , Les Desser Sun, 25 May 2008 18:02:06 writes
That is it. See
The Government is proposing an 'impact test' for loft extensions which means that planning permission will not be required for a loft conversion provided the rear dormer window is more than 1 metre down from the ridge and 1 metre up from the eaves and no dormers are to be permitted on the side elevation.
However the majority of housing stock does not have ridge heights sufficient to comply with these requirements and therefore planning applications would be required for over 95% of loft conversions.
In addition nearly all semi-detached properties have staircases on their flank wall, which means the only way to convert a loft in such properties is to provide a dormer on the side elevation. This can currently be constructed under permitted development rights but the new proposals would prevent this.
And:
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