Apex Sustainable home

Planning for a sustainable home

30th September 2021

Looking at making your existing or future home sustainable and eco-friendly? There are some planning issues you will need to consider… Developing with sustainability in mind Last month we looked at whether the latest planning guidelines – outlined in the latest white paper ‘Planning for the Future’ – really did enough to encourage a sustainable…

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Apex planning sustainability

Do the latest planning changes embrace sustainability?

23rd August 2021

The planning White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’ covered a lot of ground when it came to bringing the planning industry into the 21st century, but does it do enough to address the issue of sustainability? Sustainable planning Sustainability should be a major part of the planning process across the UK – after all, it…

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Apex retail to residential

Retail to Residential: A Golden Opportunity?

21st July 2021

In towns and cities across the UK, retail units are sitting empty. Meanwhile, the demand for affordable housing continues to grow. Do changes to Permitted Development Rights provide a golden opportunity for developers to profitably address both issues? Changes to Permitted Development Rights Repurposing Class E (retail, commercial and office) space into Class C3 (residential)…

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Apex Garden Office

How Covid has changed the rules for garden offices

25th June 2021

The rise in workers needing an office space at home has pushed the case for garden offices to be allowed through permitted development… Demand for Garden Buildings Over the past 18 months the world of working from home has been opened to a wider proportion of the population than ever before. As last spring’s lockdown…

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Apex New Planning Bill

Autumn debut for planning bill

25th May 2021

Following the publication of the white paper ‘Planning for the Future’ last summer, planning developments look likely to move forward as the Planning Bill has been brought forward to this autumn… New Planning Bill There are changes ahead – and sooner than we thought – as it looks likely that the planning bill that is…

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Apex High Street

Permitted development changes – another nail in the coffin for the High Street?

28th April 2021

We turn our attention once more to permitted developments, as yet more change could give the green light to homes on the High Street… Class E Properties Permitted development rights have seen quite a shake up over the past few months, much of which we have covered before but there’s another raft of changes that…

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Apex Permitted Development Rights

The highs and lows of the new Permitted Development Rights

29th March 2021

Changes in existing Permitted Development Rights will make it easier to extend homes to create new dwellings, and maybe even help to revitalise the high street without miles of red tape, but the changes have also raised some concerns… Permitted Development Rights Permitted Development Rights (PDR) allow property owners and developers to carry out certain…

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National Design Code

Looking good – a new national design code

19th February 2021

Beauty and placemaking are the focus of proposed changes to the NPPF and a draft national design code Tree-lined streets are just one of the changes we can expect to see on new developments in the future if the government’s draft proposals pan out. Following the publication of the Planning White Paper Planning for the…

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Apex Planning Review 2020

2020 – A Year in Planning

29th January 2021

2020 was quite a year to say the least. We take a look at how the planning world has responded to the pandemic and how it is looking to the future… Quarter One 2020 Take yourself back to almost a year ago. Back in February 2020, we were hearing tales of a terrible virus in…

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Apex Planning process

The need for speed in planning

16th December 2020

The latest consultation looks at speeding up the planning process and making it more flexible, but will the proposed moves make much of a difference? It’s all change (again!) for the planning process, but is this a good or bad thing? Following on from the white paper that we have considered over the past few…

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