6 Wellington Cottages

Thu 10 Jul, 11:20 (last edited on Thu 10 Jul, 11:47)

Thank you for pointing this out Hannen.  I don't suppose for one moment that we have any powers to prevent change of use from housing to business letting but I will write a response because somebody - Government, business development area, Cotswold Area of Outstanding nature, District Council or County Council needs to get their brain round this problem.  

Changing the use of residential property to business short-term lets is taking housing out of the housing stock available for people to live in.  The Government wants more housing for people to live in, the private developers won't build unless it meets their profit requirements i.e. we all pay more for housing when we already pay far more than it's value.  Rented housing is being changed to short-term lets and holiday lets for tax benefits to the owners.  Building business properties doesn't add to the housing stock it just creates more of a demand for cheap labour.

It would also be interesting to know whether the started properties in Hixet Wood need change of use planning to continue.  Because I suspect that this requirement to use properties for business purposes was introduced after the planning permission was granted for this site.   I wonder if the increased cost of the development as the consequence of the owner needing to pay for the overhead electricity cable to be re-routed somewhere has meant that it is no longer a viable project.  The development was started to prevent the planning permission expiring but maybe the costings have also changed because they would need to pay business rates?  Does anybody know or understand all this?

This is my objection:  I object on the grounds that it removes another property from residential housing use. The Government's stated aim is to build 1.5 million new "homes" in 5 years. What is the point of doing this if homes are being taken out of the system through change of use to business letting?

Local Government needs to keep a complete register of housing in business use as well as a separate register of housing available for homes. I believe they have lost control of this problem and until it is sorted out further applications should go on hold and decisions need to be taken about a sustainable number of business properties to prevent further assaults on community and neighbourliness. Thank you.