Community groups could benefit from relaxed property rules 1

Finance | Gareth Jones | 27 Jun 2011

The government has indicated its intention to remove red tape from ‘meanwhile leases’, the use of empty buildings on a temporary basis.

Planning Minister Greg Clark (pictured) today said it should be easier for businesses and community groups to make use of empty buildings until a permanent occupier is found.

He said the government could scrap rules requiring costly and time-consuming planning permission in order to temporarily change the use of empty buildings.

The changes would come as part of the Use Class Order review being conducted by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Clark said: “Empty properties can drain the life away from town centres and are a waste of a valuable social and economic resource.

“We want to make it easier for businesses and community enterprises to reanimate vacant spaces, helping to revive struggling high streets and kick-start local growth.

“Removing bureaucratic barriers in the planning system could play a major part in encouraging meanwhile uses of empty buildings, transforming them into new shops, business start-ups and community projects."

Place a comment

Peter Munro
28 Jun 2011

It would be far more effective to remove the support given to the big property companies allowing them to escape business rates on empty properties.

That dodge loses millions of pounds for the Treasury and keeps rents artificially high by reducing supply of rentable properties.

I'm well aware that there needs to be a safety net so that owners of properties that are under active redevelopment or between lets should have rates exemption but it needs to be a reasonable time, for example, 1 month; not 6 months, 1 year - some properties local to me have been empty for more than 5 years and rates-free all that time.

[Reply]

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.