Maidstone Borough Council has begun the formal process to require full planning permission for office-to-residential conversions at named town centre buildings, saying the change will protect jobs and improve the quality of new homes.

Residents and businesses in Maidstone town centre could soon see tighter rules on how office blocks are turned into flats. The council announced this week that it is starting the process to introduce an Article 4 Direction — planning jargon for a rule that strips developers of the automatic right to convert offices into homes without submitting a full planning application first.

Right now, national planning rules allow many office-to-residential conversions to go ahead under what are called permitted development rights, meaning developers don’t need full council approval. Maidstone Borough Council says that’s led to conversions it has little control over — and it wants that to change.

Which buildings are affected?

The Direction targets what the council describes as “good office stock” in the designated town centre. Buildings already named in previous council resolutions include:

    • County Gate and County House, Earl Street
    • Medway Bridge House
    • 23–29 Albion Place
    • Sterling House, Maidstone House and Romney House
    • Gail House, Kestrel House and Knightrider Chambers
    • 62 Earl Street, 66 Earl Street and 72 King Street
    • Clarendon Place

Most of these sit within or close to High Street ward, at the heart of Maidstone’s commercial centre.

Why the council says it is doing this

The council’s position is that unchecked office conversions have eaten into the employment space that keeps Maidstone functioning as Kent’s county town. By requiring a full planning application, officers can assess whether a proposed scheme meets local standards for room sizes, daylight, outdoor space and contributions to local infrastructure — things that permitted development conversions are not automatically tested against.

Local media have previously reported around 999 flats created in Maidstone town centre through permitted development rights — though that figure has not been independently confirmed in official national data. The council says the sheer volume of conversions, and concerns about their quality, justify tighter controls.

The case against

Not everyone is convinced. Developers and some property owners argue that removing permitted development rights slows down housing delivery and adds cost and uncertainty to investment decisions. There is also a practical worry: if residential conversion is refused, some older office buildings could simply sit empty rather than being put to any use at all.

The council itself has not always been united on this. A committee vote in 2018 initially rejected imposing Article 4 controls on office conversions before later decisions reversed that position. Critics within the council have previously argued the approach risks over-regulation and misses the chance to bring redundant offices back into use as homes.

National government guidance from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities says Article 4 Directions should be used only where “essential to protect local amenity or the well-functioning of the area” — and must be targeted and evidence-based rather than applied as a blanket restriction.

What happens next and when

This is a non-immediate Direction, which means it won’t take effect overnight. The process involves publishing formal notices, a statutory consultation period — typically running from a few weeks up to around four months — and then a lead-in period of roughly one year before the restriction actually bites. That gap is deliberate: it protects the council from compensation claims by giving developers time to act under the old rules.

Residents and developers will have a formal opportunity to submit comments during the consultation window once it opens.

Key information

    • The consultation period has not yet opened — watch for public notices from Maidstone Borough Council confirming the start date and how to respond
    • The Direction is expected to come into force about one year after it is formally made, based on the timetable used for previous Maidstone Article 4 Directions
    • Comments and queries can be directed to Maidstone Borough Council’s planning department once the formal process is under way