Property shake-up will cost me my living – and my home
SUNNY PATEL faces losing both his livelihood and home if the business he bought for £77,000 in 1987, which is still thriving today, is forced to close its doors.
He is among a wave of business owners being driven out by landlords under new rules that make it easier for them to convert commercial sites to residential property.
His shop, Sunny News, in Southfields, South-West London, employs three part-time staff, plus paper boys delivering 400 papers a day. It has the community’s backing.
The landlords served a notice in June last year under the 1954 Landlord and Tenant Act declaring that he would not be granted a new lease. They also applied for permission from Wandsworth Council to convert the site to residential use.
Office-to-residential permitted development rights – introduced in 2013 to address the UK’s housing shortage – were set to expire in May this year, but with no end in sight to the accommodation shortfall they were made permanent last month. The law was also relaxed for the conversion of smaller shops.
The rights act as a national grant of planning permission by the Planning Inspectorate – a Government agency based in Bristol – that allows commercial premises to be transformed to residential use, overruling objections at council level.
In Patel’s case, more than 430 objection letters and a petition were sent to the council by residents, who argued the shop should be given the protected status of an ‘asset of community value’ and provided evidence of its value to them. He said: ‘Residents campaigned against the plan and all 11 members of Wandsworth’s Planning Application Committee refused it. Then the landlords appealed and the Planning Inspectorate reversed the decision.’
Patel has been offered compensation of £15,000 but is waiting for a hearing date for a judicial review. If unsuccessful he will have 90 days to leave his shop. In the meantime business is suffering, as he has been wary of ordering too much stock. He is receiving free advice from residents and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to cover other costs. He said: ‘I don’t have a chance to sell my business because basically I’m being evicted. It is awful.’
His crowdfunding campaign ‘Save Sunny News’ on Crowdfunder.co.uk, has raised almost £5,000. He said: ‘I have had anonymous people donating £500. There is such a strength of feeling.
‘This is a dwelling providing a home, livelihood, employment, service to residents, plus income tax, VAT and national insurance contributions to the Government.’
Last week he wrote to Communities Secretary Greg Clark telling him he feels ‘duty bound to advise other small businesses’ of the issue.
He wrote: ‘The Government has little consideration for communities and small businesses (still the largest employers in the private sector). Decisions made locally by ward councillors and authorities who have sound knowledge of the area will be overridden by Government.
‘This will have a big impact on all small businesses, especially retail and restaurants, and a ripple effect.’
Patel said: ‘It will be a problem in all high property price areas, not just London. I would like Ministers to review the permitted development policy; to state they didn’t have the intention of closing down businesses that provide employment.’
He said his MP Justine Greening backed him and Tory London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith has campaigned against the rights too.
He added: ‘I think other shopkeepers have taken compensation. I wonder how many shops have silently disappeared. People have caved in. I haven’t. I think this will have huge implications for retailers with just a couple of years left on their leases.’
Colemans Solicitors in Maidenhead, Berkshire, act for the owners of the property, Nirbhel Singh Johal and his wife Jatinder, who bought it 35 years ago and ran the shop, living there with their three children until 1987. They said the couple are ‘sympathetic’ to residents and ‘understand the strength of feeling at the proposed loss of a local business’.
Kate Williams, a partner at the law firm, said: ‘The Johals are an elderly couple aged 79 and 69 who wish to enjoy their retirement in comfort and familiar surroundings.’
Meanwhile the Federation of Small Businesses has welcomed Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s pledge on Friday that Labour would find collaborative workspaces for 20,000 new entrepreneurs a year.
Martin McTague, policy director at the FSB, said: ‘Recent planning changes have restricted the availability of premises, driven up rent and priced many small businesses out of central areas in many towns and cities, particularly London. Rent is seen by 23 per cent of small firms as the main driver of a rise in costs.’