223 Steatham Road

Client: Grip Holdings Ltd
Local Planning Authority: Merton Borough Council, London

Our client had recently acquired two vacant ground floor retail units, within a mixed residential and commercial, 4 storey building in Streatham. These units had been vacant since the building was constructed in 2019 Squires Planning were asked to advise on the best way to secure the necessary consent/permission to convert the units to residential apartments.

Following a review of the site, a strategy was devised including a mixture of TCPA planning applications and utilising Class MA permitted development rights. We worked closely with the appointed architect and other consultants (daylight, highways and noise) to prepare a scheme.

To establish whether a planning application (which would allow the proposal to be dealt with under a single application) would be the well-received we submitted a request for pre-application advice. Unfortunately, the response received was not positive with officers raising concerns over living conditions and the loss of commercial units.

Given the response of officers, a two stage approach was adopted to first secure the change of use of the building under Class MA, followed by a full planning application for physical alterations. This process took longer, but removed many planning considerations (including local planning policy) for officers to consider.

Both the change of use, and subsequent planning applications were swiftly dealt with under delegated authority. By ensuring the strategy encompassed all parts of the planning system we were able to turn this scheme into a successful outcome for our client despite conflict with the Local Plan.

The consultant team for this project comprised Squires Planning, Liam Russell Architects, Motion, Delta Green and Anderson Acoustics