Birmingham City Council officials are to demand the Government ditches “absurd” plans to relax planning laws amid serious concerns the city is being overrun with massive home extensions.

The Department for Communities and Local Government is currently consulting councils and developers on changes to planning regulations surrounding neighbourhoods, the application process and further reducing red tape to support growth.

Controversially, it wants to make permanent a temporary three-year relaxation of regulations which doubled the size of house extensions allowed without planning permission.

But members of Birmingham’s planning committee have described the policy as a disaster which has blighted suburbs with large “monstrosities” and caused conflict between neighbours.

Recently the planning system was blamed for the Moseley extension which virtually linked two detached houses, and residents in Selly Oak have seen dozens of family homes converted into multiple residencies.

Gerard and Christina White’s house was blighted after it was turned from a detached property ‘into a semi’ because their neighbour built his wall so close to their home in The Hurst, Moseley that the roofs now share a gutter and the couple can no longer maintain the side wall.

Yet the council’s planning department has refused to take enforcement action, even though the extension is larger than the one granted permission.

Coun Barry Henley (Lab, Brandwood) pointed out that when the rules for extensions were first relaxed the committee warned the Government this would cause problems and divide neighbourhoods.

He said: “We had a temporary change to see the effect – and the effect is wholly bad, there isn’t anything positive about this.”

He urged planning officers to make the case in the strongest possible terms.

Coun Peter Douglas Osborn (Cons, Weoley) added that the policy was supposed to make development easier and encourage building but agreed the regulation should be restored.

“We take responsibility on our side for some of the excesses of permitted development and will be making this point to Eric Pickles when we welcome him to Birmingham at the Conservative Party Conference,” he added.

In an official response to the Government, council officers say the de-regulation has created more work for planning departments as they have to ‘mediate’ between homeowners and their neighbours.

“Overall, the process is resulting in more and more inappropriate developments in close proximity to neighbouring properties,” it added.

There is also outrage that the Government wants to make it easier for housing to be built on job-creating light industrial sites.

These are in short supply in the city and seen as a key component for the economic recovery.

Coun John Clancy (Lab, Quinton) said: “I am very concerned. I am not saying protect them all.

“But there is a substantial need across the city for heavy and light industrial land and we need to keep that. ”

He added that, in many cases, the light industrial acts as a buffer between more intense uses and residential property.

The council is also objecting to a lifting of restrictions on some types of business – including launderettes, amusement arcades/centres, casinos and nightclubs – to be converted into residential properties.

It asks for the power to decide these on a case by case basis rather than a blanket approval.