Page 43 - The Building Conservation Directory 2013

t w e n t i e t h a n n i v e r s a r y e d i t i o n t h e b u i l d i n g c o n s e r vat i o n d i r e c t o r y 2 0 1 3 4 3
1
Professional services Enabling
Development
A look at the position post-NPPF
Mark Challis
The term ‘enabling development’ is not
a statutory one. It generally refers to a
state of affairs in which development
that would otherwise be considered harmful
is considered acceptable because it would
facilitate (or ‘enable’) benefits that outweigh
that harm. Typically the benefits in question
are the generation of funds that will be used to
pay for work to be done to a listed building or
other heritage asset that is in pressing need of
substantial repairs.
Enabling development cases are rarely
straightforward and there are a number of
reasons for this. First, as a matter of public
policy, enabling development should not
provide an easy way out for owners of listed
buildings (or other heritage assets) who
have failed to take reasonable care of them.
Nor should enabling development act as
a lifeboat to rescue property owners from
ill-judged transactions, such as overpaying
for a property in the first place. Generally,
therefore, enabling development should be
seen as a long-term solution of last resort,
with proposals coming forward when other
solutions have been tried but have failed. This
tends to mean that enabling development
cases come forward with a certain amount of
past history or ‘baggage’.
There is a further difficulty in that, public
policy considerations aside, the welfare of
the heritage asset in distress is at the heart
of enabling development cases. Everyone
concerned will be aware that the longer it
takes to find a solution, the more the asset
will deteriorate and the more money will
be needed to repair it. In short, there will
be pressure to find a solution even if it is an
imperfect one.
The classic enabling development case
is one where new houses are proposed in
the grounds of a listed building in disrepair,
with the owner claiming that this is the only
way to fund desperately needed repairs. It
may be that the new houses are perfectly
acceptable in planning terms in any event.
They might have no adverse impact on the
setting of the building and be in a location
The price of conservation: a classic example of enabling development