Office buildings struggling to meet higher energy efficiency standards could be used to increase housing supply, according to experts.

House price growth could be dampened by Michael Gove’s relaxation of planning rules but the reforms are unlikely to solve Britain’s housing crisis, experts have said.

Under legislation laid in Parliament on Tuesday, laws allowing commercial buildings to be turned into homes without planning permission will be extended to shops and larger office buildings.

The changes are part of a package of measures to boost housebuilding, which also include instructions for local councils to prioritise developments on brownfield land.

Mr Gove, the Housing Secretary, said the approach would deliver “thousands of new homes where people want to live and work, without concreting over the countryside”.

Cameron Misson, an economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research think-tank, said that if the changes boosted the availability of homes, this could lead to smaller house price rises in the coming years.

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