Historic town centres could be left ‘characterless’

The National Trust has warned that the proposed overhaul of planning rules that would enable developers to turn empty high street buildings into flats risks creating ‘characterless’ market districts.

The heritage body was responding to a government consultation on the expansion of permitted development rights, which could be extended to include conservation areas – parts of a village, town or city with particular historical and architectural merit.

In its response to the consultation, the National Trust said it believed the inclusion of conservation areas would have a detrimental effect on ‘local distinctiveness’ and residents’ ‘pride and identity’. This could the lead to the creation of ‘stagnant and characterless areas’ in both urban and rural regions.

The National Trust maintains that the normal planning process was the best way to balance development with heritage.

In a statement to The Independent, the body’s heritage director Ingrid Samuel said: "Lockdown has reminded us how access to local green space, culture and quality of place is vital for our health and well-being. The government's proposed unprecedented expansion of permitted development rights risk achieving the opposite of this, threatening local amenities and creating unsustainable communities.

“This is in opposition to the government's own recently professed, and very welcome, focus on design, placemaking and the plan-led system. We feel strongly that housing should not just be about bricks and mortar. It is about community, access to services, green space and wider connection.”

The consultation, which closed last month, followed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s speech in the summer in which he announced the Conservatives’ intention to “build, build, build” as part of Britain’s economic recovery from the coronavirus.