Westminster City Council has said it is planning to use an article 4 direction to require that all applications for basements for residential homes have to be considered through the planning process.
Currently, many basement extensions to dwelling houses can be carried out under permitted development rights, and therefore without the need for planning permission. The council has just made the decision to start the process of introducing the article 4 direction, which takes six months to a year, according to a council spokesman.
The council is also hoping to introduce new policies to limit the size and depth of basement construction. Proposed revisions to the council’s City Plan would limit basements to a single storey and to 50 per cent of the site curtilage. A consultation on the revisions will run until September, when the council intends to submit them to a planning inspector.
Councillor Robert Davis, deputy leader of Westminster City Council, said: "Our residents have been facing an underground epidemic on their quiet residential streets, and I want to help stop the horror stories of people living next to mega-basement construction.
"All basements will now go before the council’s planning department, allowing neighbours and local communities to have their say and for developers to demonstrate they will not cause undue harm to neighbours or the character of the area."
Westminster City Council is following the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), which introduced measures in 2014 that also sought to set limits to basement developments. RBKC is also proposing to remove permitted development rights for basement development by implementing an article 4 direction across the whole borough from April 2016.
Last week, a woman lost a legal challenge against RBKC’s planning policy to restrict basement conversions.