Developers could find it harder to get permission to convert offices into flats under new rules set to be approved by a council.

National planning policy says developers don’t normally need full planning permission, and instead have ‘prior approval’. This means council planning officers can only assess whether the new homes will have acceptable living conditions and won’t cause a ‘severe’ impact on roads.

But this could be revoked in some parts of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, with the council warning such developments can lead to ‘poor quality’ homes that are ‘often very small and lacking natural light’.

The council also says that such conversions can have ‘a lack of outdoor space,’ and can contribute no affordable housing or infrastructure that would otherwise be required from new housing developments.

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Now leading councillors on the Royal Borough’s cabinet committee look set to revoke ‘prior approval’ for conversions of offices into flats at 31 ‘protected employment sites’ within the borough. These are mostly industrial estates or business parks.

This will mean that if developers want to convert offices into homes, they will need to apply for full planning permission instead. That will give council officers greater oversight of the plans, and the power to request contributions to affordable housing, services and infrastructure.

Council leaders were set to vote on this at a meeting on Wednesday, October 30. However, if they agree, they will still need to notify the Government’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which has the power to block or modify the new rules at any time.

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Papers for the cabinet meeting say the ministry agrees there is a ‘good strategic case’ for the move but is asking for more evidence to justify limiting conversions in each area.

They also say that the new rules will come into force in January next year, but that the council expects the ministry to ‘modify’ the change.

Responding to a consultation on the plans, the MHCLG told the council in March: “We consider that the evidence you have submitted presents a good, strategic case for the need to protect the key employment sites within your borough.

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But it added: “Ministers want to see that an assessment has been made of each area, so that the inclusion of each individual location / site / area has been justified, by setting out the risk of conversion and what the wholly unacceptable adverse impact of conversion for that particular site would be.”

Cabinet papers say discussions will continue with the ministry. But they note that a new government has been elected since the talks began. They add it is ‘unclear at this stage’ whether the new Labour government will take a different approach.