Halifax town centre office tower can be converted into 41 flats
Crown House at Crown Street was once home to HMRC
It has taken four years and a fair bit of negotiation, but a familiar towering building on the edge of Halifax town centre can be converted into 41 flats.
Calderdale Council planners have eventually permitted Mr S. Holmes to turn Crown House at Crown Street – once partly occupied by HMRC (His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) – into the apartments.
Thirty three of the new homes will be one bedroom flats, with eight two bedroom apartments also planned.
It is not a very old building – put up around 1977 according to papers with the application, which was submitted in 2022 – but has a distinctive appearance.
This is one aspect which has resulted in some negotiation over the years before the go-ahead has been given.
According to the planning officers’ report, HMRC through its Valuation Office Agency once occupied the first four floors at Crown House for a significant number of years.
They left the building between April 2021 and March 2022.
In terms of the other floors, the fifth floor was vacated in September 2022, the sixth floor a year earlier in September 2021, the seventh floor in May 2011 and the eighth floor in November 2019.
Given the history of the building, officers are satisfied that it has not been made vacant as office space for the sole purpose of redevelopment and they noted efforts were made without success to market the office space between 2020 and 2023.
As conversion into housing, normally an affordable homes element would be required, but only if there were any increase in floorspace and as this is not the case, as it is change of use and reuse of Crown House, no affordable element is required to comply with policy, said the officers.
There was some haggling over proposals to renovate the outside of the building, said officers.
The application proposed replacing windows with grey UPVC fittings – which had been previously approved – but to also introduce panelling between the windows, which is a requirement of regulations following the Grenfell Fire disaster in London in June 2017.
The method of panelling and the materials to be used has been the subject of extensive discussion in the course of the application, said the planners.
This was because the original scheme was considered to detract from the “distinctive” appearance of the building created by the horizontal banding of solid (brick) to void (glazing).
“It has become clear, however, that a complete band of glazing would not meet the insulation requirements necessitated by the Grenfell regulations.
“When a window becomes a wall, as was shown on the previously approved scheme, it is not possible for any part of that wall to be combustible when a residential unit, and every component must have a fire test certificate to prove it.
“UPVC and aluminium windows cannot achieve that and there is no option but to introduce the solid panels between the windows,” said officers, and this has been confirmed by the council’s Building Control Officer.
Accordingly, the re-cladding will now use new UPVC windows in anthracite grey with new brick panels between the windows.
A legal agreement will secure £37,234 towards the cost of providing secondary school places – there is a shortage of these in the area.
In considering the planning balance, officers said the proposals were for a “brownfield” site and re-purposing a vacant building would contribute to both Calderdale’s housing supply in a sustainable town centre location.
“Whilst the proposal cladding would somewhat change the appearance of the building, it is essential in the interests of fire regulations and subject to an appropriate quality of material, it would not result in harm to the Halifax Town Centre Conservation Area and does not detract from the special character of the listed buildings that surround the site,” they concluded, permitting the application.