The Trust has responded to the recent planning reform consultation issued by the government.  The paper looked at relaxing change of use rules for retail units to make some changes of use class permitted development.  In addition the reforms look to gauge feedback on the proposal to allow some form of roof addition/extensions (i.e upward ‘space’) to be permitted development, in order to bring additional housing forward.  The Trust’s response expressed strong concerns regarding both issues; we feel that that the answer to the crisis currently faced by the high street is not via relaxing planning obligations or sidelining the planning system (which exists to manage change appropriately) as this could have further adverse effects on the vitality, amenity and character of high streets and accelerate harmful change and loss. Similarly whilst we support urban intensification we do not believe that upwards extensions can be put under a permitted development umbrella due to the complex planning considerations for each proposal.