The House of Fisher business provides service apartments for people with short stays in the town, running the City Wall apartment-hotel in West Street and the 100 Kings Road bookable apartments.
However, the company had applied to convert rooms at its Kings Road apartment hotel into 41 residential flats.
These would have been made up of 13 studios, 20 one-bed and eight two-bed apartments.
Conversion could see Reading hotel rooms become permanent flats
But this project was rejected due to a dispute over the status of nine more rooms which House of Fisher claimed have been converted into permanent accommodation.
These nine rooms are made up of three three-bed units, three two-bed units, two studios and a one-bed apartment.
House of Fisher wanted to convert these rooms into a one-bed flat, a three-bed flat and seven two-bed permanent occupancy flats on the fourth and fifth floors.
The application was assessed by Jonathan Markwell, a principal planning officer of Reading Borough Council.
The company had a previously approved plan for the conversion of the nine rooms into permanent homes granted in 2017.
Mr Markwell stated that this application has not been enacted, claiming House of Fisher has not submitted sufficient evidence as proof this conversion had taken place.
He wrote: “The application has not been submitted on an accurate basis and the Council cannot support a proposed development on this procedural basis, with the required changes to the proposal being so significant as to materially alter the proposal such that a new application should be submitted.”
That dispute aside, Mr Markwell also argued that there would be an ‘overdominance’ of studio and one-bed units, and an ‘under-provision’ of three-bedroom units, which would fail to contribute to the housing mix provided in the town centre, therefore not being compliant with the council’s policies.
Furthermore, he stated that a lack of provision of affordable housing or commitment to funding off-site affordable housing provision also breached the council’s planning policies.
He therefore recommended that the project be rejected, with the plan officially being refused last September.
You can view the refused application by typing reference PL/24/0313 into the council’s planning portal.
House of Fisher has been an early player in the serviced apartment market in Reading, with a plan to convert 100 Kings Road from offices into a 57-suite apartment-hotel being approved in 2013.
The building is home to Buzz Gym, situated on the ground floor.
House of Fisher also runs serviced apartments in Newbury, Bracknell, Basingstoke, Farnborough and Camberley.
