Control of Office and Industrial Development Act 1965
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1965 c. 33 |
| Year | 1965 |
Control of Office andIndustrial DevelopmentAct 1965
1965 CHAPTER 33
An Act to impose further restrictions (with retrospective effect, in the case of land in the metropolitan region) on the development of land in so far as any such development may relate to office premises; to provide, in relation to industrial development, for modifying the exemptions conferred in England and Wales by section 39 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1962 and in Scotland by section 19 of the Local Employment Act 1960; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[5th August 1965]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Office Development
1 Development requiring office development permit.
(1) This Part of this Act applies to any development of land which consists of or includes—
(a ) the erection of a building containing office premises, or
(b ) the extension or alteration of a building by the addition of, or the conversion of premises into, office premises, or
(c ) a change of use whereby premises which are not office premises become office premises.
(2) The areas to which this Part of this Act applies are—
(a ) the metropolitan region;
(b ) any area in Great Britain outside the metropolitan region which is for the time being designated for the purposes of this paragraph by an order made by the Board of Trade:
Provided that the Board of Trade may at any time by order direct that the metropolitan region, or a part of that region specified in the order, shall cease to be, or to be included in, an area to which this Part of this Act applies.
(3) Subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act, an application to the local planning authority for planning permission to carry out any development to which this Part of this Act applies on land within an area to which this Part of this Act applies shall be of no effect unless a permit (in this Part of this Act referred to as an ‘office development permit’) in respect of that development is issued under this Part of this Act by the Board of Trade, and a copy of the permit is furnished to the local planning authority together with the application.
(4) In exercising their discretion to issue or withhold office development permits, the Board of Trade shall have particular regard to the need for promoting the better distribution of employment in Great Britain.
2 Exemption by reference to office floor space.
(1) Notwithstanding anything in the preceding section, an office development permit shall not be required for the purposes of an application for planning permission to carry out any development (in this section referred to as ‘the proposed development’) if the office floor space to be created by the proposed development, together with any office floor space created or to be created by any related development, does not exceed the prescribed exemption limit.
(2) For the purposes of the preceding subsection development shall, in relation to an application for planning permission (in this section referred to as ‘the relevant application’), be taken to be ‘related development’ if—
(a ) it related, or is to relate, to the same building as that to which the proposed development is to relate (in this subsection referred to as the ‘relevant building’), or
(b ) it related, or is to relate, to a building which is, or is to be, contiguous or adjacent to the relevant building, and it was, or is to be, development comprised in, or for the purposes of, the same scheme or project or for the purposes of the same undertaking as the proposed development,
and (in either case) it fulfils one or other of the conditions mentioned in subsection (3) or subsection (4) of this section, as the case may be, and is not excluded by subsection (5) of this section.
(3) The said conditions, in relation to land within the metropolitan region, are—
(a ) that it is development for which, before the date of the relevant application, planning permission has been granted by a planning decision made on or after 5th November 1964 (whether before or after the passing of this Act);
(b ) that it is development (not falling within the preceding paragraph) which has (whether before or after the passing of this Act) been initiated on or after 5th November 1964 but before the date of the relevant application and is not development for which planning permission was granted by a planning decision made before 5th November 1964;
(c ) that it is development in respect of which an application to the local planning authority for planning permission either is pending on the date of the relevant application or is made on that date.
(4) The said conditions, in relation to land within an area to which this Part of this Act applies outside the metropolitan region, are—
(a ) that it is development for which, before the date of the relevant application, planning permission has been granted by a planning decision made on or after the specified date;
(b ) that it is development (not falling within the preceding paragraph) which has been initiated on or after the specified date but before the date of the relevant application and is not development for which planning permission was (whether before or after the passing of this Act) granted by a planning decision made before the specified date;
(c ) that it is development in respect of which an application to the local planning authority for planning permission either is pending on the date of the relevant application or is made on that date,
and in this subsection ‘the specified date’, in relation to an area, means such date (not being earlier than the date on which the order comes into operation) as may be specified in the order designating that area as an area to which this Part of this Act applies.
(5) Where, before the date of the relevant application, an office development permit has been issued in respect of development which, apart from this subsection, would be related development for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section,—
(a ) the development in respect of which the permit was issued, and
(b ) any other development which was carried out before the issue of that permit, or for which planning permission was granted by a planning decision made before the issue of that permit,
shall not be taken to be related development for those purposes.
(6) In this section ‘the prescribed exemption limit’, subject to the next following subsection, means 3,000 square feet; any reference to development relating to a building is a reference to development consisting of or including the erection, extension or alteration of the building or a change of use of the whole or part of the building; and any reference to an application pending on a particular date is a reference to an application made before that date and not withdrawn, where no planning decision on that application has been made before that date.
(7) The Board of Trade may by order direct that such number of square feet (whether greater or less than 3,000 but not less than 1,000) as may be specified in the order shall be the prescribed exemption limit for the purposes of this section, either generally or in relation to any particular area to which this Part of this Act applies in accordance with subsection (2) of the preceding section or in relation to any particular part of such an area.
3 Retrospective control in metropolitan region.
(1) In relation to an application made to the local planning authority before the passing of this Act for planning permission to carry out development to which this Part of this Act applies on land within the metropolitan region, where no planning decision has before the passing of this Act been made on that application,—
(a ) subsection (3) of section 1 of this Act, with the substitution, for the words ‘together with the application’, of the words ‘as soon as practicable after the permit is issued’, and
(b ) subsection (4) of that section and section 2 of this Act,
shall have effect as they have effect in relation to applications for planning permission made after the passing of this Act.
(2) Where before the passing of this Act an application was made to the local planning authority for planning permission for development consisting of or including the erection on land in Greater London of a building containing office premises, or consisting of or including the extension of a building on land in Greater London by the addition of office premises, and on that application planning permission for such development was granted before the passing of this Act, then, unless that planning permission was granted before 5th November 1964 and either—
(a ) a building was before that date erected, or (as the case may be) the building was before that date extended, in accordance with that planning permission, or
(b ) a building contract was made before that date which specifically related to the land, or part of the land, in respect of which the planning permission was granted and which provided for the erection thereon of such a building, or the making of such an extension, in accordance with that planning permission,
the provisions of subsection (5) of this section shall (except where subsection (4) of this section or section 5(2) of this Act applies) have effect in relation to that planning permission.
(3) Where before the passing of this Act an application was made to the local planning authority for planning permission—
(a ) to carry out, on land in Greater London, development to which this Part of this...
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