The Government has introduced changes to permitted development rights, allowing the conversion of agricultural buildings to residential dwellings. These changes came into effect on 6 April 2018.

Housing minister Dominic Raab stated that the measures would give rural communities “more options to convert agricultural buildings into family homes to better meet local housing needs”.

The existing permitted development rights to convert agricultural buildings to homes, set out in the Class Q permitted development rights, have been amended to increase the number of homes permitted within an established agricultural unit from three to five. Under these new provisions, it is now possible to provide up to three ‘larger’ dwellings with a maximum floorspace of 465m² per units and up to a further two smaller units, each of the smaller units must not exceed 100m².