On 1 September 2025, the Local Government Association (LGA) published an estimate about office-to-residential conversions in England carried out through permitted development rights (PDR). It said almost 28,000 affordable homes had not been delivered over the preceding 11 years because those conversions did not provide the affordable-housing contributions normally associated with a full planning route. The figure was an estimate, not a count of identified homes or a government target.
The LGA’s calculation used published data for office conversions between 2015 and 2024 and estimated earlier years where national data was not available. Its table totals 111,958 converted units, including those estimates. To calculate the affordable-home equivalent, the LGA applied an indicative 25 per cent affordable-housing requirement. That assumption is central: actual local requirements vary, and the LGA itself described the result as an estimate. The analysis therefore illustrates a potential planning trade-off rather than proving that each converted office would otherwise have become an affordable home.
PDR provides a national planning permission for specified types of development subject to limits and, where relevant, prior approval. It can allow some changes of use without a full planning application. In the 2025 debate, the LGA argued that office conversions under PDR could bypass affordable-housing and infrastructure contributions and give councils less scope to shape design, location and local services. It also raised concerns about daylight, ventilation, space and location. These were concerns cited by the association and should not be read as a finding that every PDR home is poor quality.
The LGA’s release accompanied an open letter signed by 39 organisations. It called on ministers to support a proposed amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that would remove certain PDR. That was the campaign’s position at that moment in the Bill’s progress, not a statement of the law today. This article preserves the original September 2025 context and does not imply the amendment became law.
For councils, housing providers and property owners, the lasting question is how to balance faster delivery and reuse of vacant offices against affordability, standards, infrastructure and local accountability. The LGA’s estimate offers one perspective on that balance; its assumptions should be read alongside local planning policy and the rules applying to each proposed conversion.