Recent changes in planning rules mean that a range of commercial premises including offices, shops and cafes, and other services could be converted to houses or flats without the need for planning permission.
Such schemes already completed or approved since 2014 under these new rules are likely to result in the loss of up to 3,000 office jobs in Dacorum. Most of these job losses are occurring in our main employment areas, including Maylands Business Park.
Consequently, we made Article 4 Directions with immediate effect on Friday 15 July 2022 to protect parts of Dacorum from the loss of shops, cafes and other such business premises to residential use. The new Directions were officially confirmed by us on
Monday 21 November 2022 after a consultation. We have provided protection by designating properties in the following employment areas within Dacorum as Article 4 sites:
- Maylands Business Park
- Doolittle Meadows, Hemel Hempstead
- Park Lane, Hemel Hempstead
- Northbridge Road and River Park, Berkhamsted
- Icknield Way, Tring.
The new Directions will mean that planning permission will continue to be required if there are proposals to convert identified properties to residential use, leaving us in control of decision making in those important areas.
Further information is available online on our Article 4 Directions page.
