ESTATE MANAGEMENT Nigel Booen
Nigel Booen is a Chartered Architect and director based in Boyer’s Wokingham office. He leads the architectural portfolio of Boyer’s design service. His experience spans over 20 years of design and delivery of commercial and high-end residential schemes for private developers and housing associations across the UK – as a consultant, contractor, and a developer. At Boyer, he is currently leading a wide variety of projects.
UK’s high streets, and the role that health services and communities can play. It’s a ‘win-win’ situation: from a healthcare point of view, the move to high street premises can help address health inequalities while offering much-needed additional capacity for health service delivery. From a regeneration perspective, meanwhile, encouraging a more diverse group of people to visit and use high streets can be of considerable benefit to existing businesses. Furthermore, placing healthcare services in central areas can reduce carbon emissions by reducing the need to travel to distant hospitals.
Architectural advice on successful conversions When converting a building, there are a number of considerations that must be taken into account from an architectural perspective: n Ensure that there is adequate access to natural light, as commercial buildings often have deep floorplans, with windows only on the narrow elevations. The existing availability of daylight can be improved by installing rooflights or new windows, although there is a limit to how much of this can be done under permitted development rights, as any external changes to an existing building are subject to an additional planning application. It is therefore more cost-effective to select buildings that have sufficiently sized and orientated windows on most or all elevations.
n The quality of the existing building fabric, in terms of thermal and sound performance, must be considered. Thermal insulation – either via retrofit or upgrading the existing fabric, is almost always required to meet current building regulations. Single pane windows and single skin buildings will usually require more work to meet current performance thresholds, although some older buildings make good conversions if they are of good build quality. Upgrading an existing building’s thermal performance can be demanding, as older buildings often have crooked walls and are prone to air leakage, and are thus not best suited for high thermal performance.
Placing healthcare services in central areas can reduce carbon emissions by reducing the need to travel to distant hospitals.
n Sound insulation is also difficult to improve without significant alterations to an existing building. Replacing windows, for instance, will be subject to a further planning application, and will likely be required to meet current building regulations and provide a comfortable space for healthcare use. An alternative can be secondary glazing, but the cost and user convenience must be considered.
n Windows of commercial buildings are likely to be
the sole means of ventilation in a conversion. If it is impractical to keep windows open – for instance if the building is public facing with no or little separation from public realm, there may be little or no ventilation. If this is the case, it may be best to submit an additional planning application to enable increased ventilation, either passively through more windows, or through additional mechanical systems.
n Landscaping can provide external amenity space, which is not easily found with existing commercial buildings: an opportunity to utilise a commercial building with external spaces would almost certainly be of benefit; albeit the maintenance aspect must be considered in advance.
n Privacy is a key consideration for buildings for healthcare use. Patients and healthcare professionals will not want to feel exposed to either external onlookers or other building users. Commercial buildings often do not make provision for providing the levels of privacy required for healthcare use. This should therefore be considered, as significant external amendments will likely be required.
Key planning considerations Of course where existing buildings fall short of potential for conversion under change of use, this can be compensated for by the submission of further planning applications. While change of use is an easier route for a simple conversion, we should not dismiss planning applications on the basis of being needlessly complicated – since a more comprehensive conversion can create a more valuable end-product, and help achieve greater opportunities for natural light, ventilation, amenity space, and security. If there are too many constraints, such as contamination or a poor existing structure, then it may well be better to demolish and rebuild. Conversion of existing buildings, whether through full planning application or change of use application, can be of great benefit to the high street, but suitability for conversion, as outlined above, must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Engagement with architects and planning consultants from an early viability stage can enable healthcare providers to select the most suitable buildings for conversion, and help avoid unforeseen challenges.
High street rental auctions Another potential, albeit more short-term, use of high street properties is high street rental auctions, which were introduced in December 2024 as part of
58 Health Estate Journal October 2025
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