Weakened planning rules has resulted in fewer checks on post-Covid urban redevelopment, despite worsening climate crisis
The conversion of offices into flats in urban centres poses a “potentially deadly risk” to occupants as the intensity of heatwaves rises, experts have warned.
Further relaxation of planning rules from Sunday mean even more commercial premises can be converted into homes without planning permission. But a failure to provide vital cooling features would make some uninhabitable as the climate crisis worsens, the experts said.