A small yet significant adjustment in planning wording could prevent a redevelopment project in Manchester from being held up for months under complicated safety approval rules. The scheme at Boulton House - which aims to turn a vacant building into short-stay tourist accommodation - risked being caught in the Building Safety Act's Gateway 2 approval process, threatening a costly delay.
The adjustment will see the description changed from 'serviced apartments' to 'serviced accommodation', which is aimed at 'addressing concerns regarding potential misinterpretation of the development's intended use'. Because the development is not designed to provide individuals with a permanent residence, the developer argues that the scheme falls within planning use class C1 (hotel) and should therefore be except from the Gateway 2 process.
Rather than a major policy change, this is about finely tuning the planning application so the project can stay on schedule without being pulled into onerous documentation requirements that typically apply to much larger residential blocks.
For construction and regeneration observers, this highlights how small changes in regulatory interpretation can make a big difference to on-the-ground delivery timelines and might serve as a model for how other urban retrofit and repurposing projects get over bureaucratic hurdles.