Faced with acute housing crises, some governments are inclined to strip away the ‘bureaucracy’ of planning, relaxing rules on the scrutiny of planning applications and seeking to accelerate the building of new homes. The planning that remains becomes a ‘client service’ for the development industry – a system of housing licensing that follows on from a basic consideration of legal compliance. Such a system has been introduced in England, rooted in the extension of permitted development rights (PDR) for office-to-residential conversions. This article examines the determinants of housing quality through the conversion process, comparing the deregulated approach to conversion in England with Italy’s regulated approach, set within its zonal planning system. The conclusion drawn, after the examination of case studies, is that good quality housing cannot be delivered from the conversion of buildings without either the retention of strong case-by-case planning control or a much more detailed prescriptive approach to housing standards, which would have halted the majority of recent office-to-residential conversions in England.

面对严重的住房危机，一些政府倾向于摆脱规划的“官僚作风”，放宽规划申请的审查规则，并寻求加快新房建设。保留下来的规划成为开发行业的“客户服务”——一种基于法律合规性基本考虑的住房许可制度。这样的系统已在英格兰引入，植根于扩展允许的开发权（PDR）以进行办公室到住宅的转换。本文通过转换过程检查住房质量的决定因素，将英格兰放松管制的转换方法与意大利在其分区规划系统中设置的规范方法进行比较。在对案例研究进行审查后得出的结论，