Portsmouth City Council leader welcomes housing above shops

Michael Gove is to relax planning rules in England in an effort to create more homes in "the hearts of our cities"

Plans to make it easier for retail spaces to be converted into housing have been cautiously welcomed by a council leader.

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove said the government would concentrate on building housing in city centres.

Portsmouth City Council leader Steve Pitt agreed changes were needed to encourage the conversion of upper high street shop floors into housing.

But he added it "remained to be seen" what measures would be introduced.

Following a report that found the government was falling short of its pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year, Mr Gove said new planning policies would promote urban regeneration, rather than "swallowing up virgin land".

• Gove plan to create more homes in city centres

• How much of the new homes plan is new?

• What's happened to the government's housebuilding target?

Mr Pitt told the Local Democracy Reporting Service many of the retail premises in Portsmouth used to be flats but are now old office or restaurant spaces that, in some cases, have not been used for decades.

"The principle of allowing vacant retail space to be converted into housing is good, provided it's just the upper floors," he said.

"The last thing we want to see in Commercial Road is a peppering of housing and retail - we need that active retail frontage."

In Portsmouth, he said the inclusion of ground floor commercial units were "a key feature" of the planned new Arundel Street student blocks.

"If you have people living in high streets then you have people shopping in them," he said. "It's something we're keen to do here but it can be very difficult."

The council has previously attempted to buy empty units in Commercial Road, including the former Burton store which has recently seen plans for its conversion into a ground floor Wendy's fast food restaurant and upper floor flats submitted, but has been unable to convince the buildings' owners to sell.

Mr Pitt added that that it was often stubborn landlords rather than planning rules that hindered attempts to make better use of the upper floors of these buildings.

He said: "Often what we hear from government differs massively from what we get on the ground.

"It remains to be seen what changes are actually made."

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