A judicial review of the Government's decision to allow any office building to be converted into housing is being sought by Islington and Richmond LBCs.

The councils want a review of the way in which the Government decided to grant exemptions to its relaxation of planning laws.

Planning permission is no longer needed to convert office buildings to housing but councils can apply to be exempt from the changes if they can demonstrate the new rights would result in harmful economic impacts.

The Government has rejected an application by Islington for the whole borough to be exempted from the changes though it accepted a similar bid by Kensington and Chelsea LBC.

Islington has estimated that the changes could put around 6,000 jobs in the borough at risk and stifle future job growth.

The borough has also issued an Article 4 direction to ‘effectively overturn' the relaxation of planning laws by the Government that means permission is no longer required to convert existing shops, dentists and pubs into the likes of betting shops or pay day loan businesses.

Islington's executive member for housing and development, Cllr James Murray, said:  'In Islington we've got firm plans for stopping too many betting shops and payday lenders, for protecting local jobs and for building affordable housing but the Government's changes are undermining what we're trying to do by allowing developers to bypass these plans in a reckless free-for-all.

'The Government's changes mean we won't be able to stop our high streets being flooded with payday loan companies - and any office space can be converted into poor quality private homes with no affordable housing at all.

'There's a real danger that small offices across the borough will be lost to private housing and tower blocks will have as many flats as possible crammed into them. 

'This is not right for Islington and so we have decided to challenge the Government. We have started the legal process to try and overturn the Government's changes.'