Following the relaxation of planning legislation in March to allow commercial buildings to be converted into new homes more easily, Zurich UK says that conversions need to be done properly, warning that a surge in poorly converted offices could create homes unfit for future climate conditions.

Government planning data shows applications to convert commercial offices into residential units in England increased from 1,025 in 2022 to 1,235 in 2023 - a jump of 20%. This follows a previous 20% applications boost between 2020 and 2021, as developers snapped up pandemic-vacated workplaces. Residential conversion applications include those from use class E – commercial, business and services – and includes offices, banks, restaurants and shops.

Since 2015, more than 89,500 homes have been developed from former commercial buildings under planning rules introduced to cut down on red tape, according to government data.
After announcing the intention to build 1.5m new homes over the new few years, adding to the UK’s housing stock is a priority for the government. However, while converting unused and underutilised building into housing stock has merits there are concerns that poorly designed and built conversions, which lack appropriate ventilation, cooling systems and external shading, could create swathes of homes which are vulnerable to more frequent heatwaves and hotter UK summers.

With many commercial buildings located in heavily built-up concrete areas they are also more exposed to the ‘urban heat island’ effect, where temperatures are hotter and flash floods from heavy downpours are a higher risk.

Paul Redington, major loss property claims manager at Zurich, said: “As legislation continues to evolve, enabling under-utilised properties to be repurposed to help ease the housing shortage, the number of office-to-residential conversions has continued to rise.

“Increasing the UK’s housing stock is vital and understandably high on the government’s agenda, however it's important that conversions are well-designed and well-built – for example, including cooling features to avoid creating homes that overheat and suffer other issues, such as the escape of water. As more intense and frequent heatwaves become a dominant feature of the UK’s summertime, developers need to ensure ventilation and shading are considered to create homes that are safe and resilient to our changing climate.”

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