Services
Class A1:
Shops for Relevant Sale, Display and Services
Shops & factory outlets; Post Offices; Travel / Ticket Agents; Sandwich bars and Pastie shops; Hairdressers; Funeral Directors / Undertakers; Domestic Hire shops; Dry Cleaners; Pet shops; Coffee shops and Internet Cafés (where principal purpose is to enable internet access); Showrooms (bathroom / kitchen); Video Rental; Pharmacy; Off Licences.
[sale of food and drink – for consumption off the premises]
No permitted change.
Class A2:
Financial and Professional Services
Bookmakers / Betting offices; Banks and building societies; Bureau de Change; Estate Agents; Job Centres and Employment / Recruitment Agencies; Share Trading; Citizens’ Advice Bureau; Copy & Print (incl. Reprographics equipment) shops; Key Cutting & Shoe Repairer’s; Commercial Photographer.
[excludes health and medical services]
Permitted change to A1.
Class A3:
Restaurants and Cafés
Restaurants and Cafés.
[sale of food and drink – for consumption on the premises]
Permitted change to A1 or A2.
Class A4:
Drinking Establishments
Public Houses
Bars and Wine bars.
Permitted change to A1, A2 or A3.
Class A5:
Hot Food Takeaways
Takeaways Drive-thru’s.
[sale of hot food – for consumption off the premises]
Permitted change to A1, A2 or A3.
Class B1:
Business
Offices (not within A2); Research & Development (of products and processes); Studios; Laboratories; Hi-tech; Light industry.
[being a use which can be carried out in any residential area without detriment to the amenity of that area by reason of noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, soot, ash, dust or grit – where potentially detrimental then B2]
Permitted change to B8 (where no more than 235 sqm is involved).
Class B2:
General Industrial
General industry.
Permitted change to B1 or B8 (B8 limited to no more than 235 sqm being involved).
Class B8:
Storage or Distribution
Wholesale warehouse; Distribution centres; Repositories.
[open and covered storage]
Permitted change to B1.
Class C1:
Hotels and Boarding Houses
Hotels, B&B’s, guesthouses, inns and motels; Halls of Residence.
[where no significant element of care is provided]
No permitted change.
Class C2:
Residential Institutions
Residential schools, colleges and training centres;
Hospitals and convalescent nursing homes; Hospices and Children’s homes; Seminaries and Convents.
[where 7 or more non-family residents, including resident staff, live together as a single household with care provided]
No permitted change.
Class C3:
Dwelling Houses
Dwellings – houses, apartments, bedsits, Almshouses, sheltered housing for elderly and handicapped; Holiday lets, chalets homes, Timeshares; Serviced Apartments.
[Use as a dwelling-house, whether or not as a sole or main residence, by a single person or by people living together as a family; or by not more than six residents living together as a single household (including a household where care is provided for residents)[where sub-division of a dwelling house takes place this is a change of use]
No permitted change.
CLASS D1:
Non-Residential Institutions
Crèche, Day Nursery, School, College or place of education, Day Centre, Clinics, Health Centres, Dental surgeries and consulting rooms, Art Gallery (other than for sale or hire), Museum, Public Library or Reading Room, Church, Mosque, Temples, Shrines and places of public worship or religious instruction, Civic and Community halls, Exhibition halls, Conference and Training centres.
No permitted change.
Class D2:
Assembly and Leisure
Adventure playground, Cinemas, Music, Dance and Concert Halls, Bingo Halls, Sports halls, Swimming Baths, Skating Rinks, Gymnasium, Casinos, Tennis courts, cricket ground, football pitches, golf courses and driving ranges, Bowls, Scout hut, Working men’s clubs and Freemason’s lodge
Other indoor or outdoor sports and leisure uses, not involving motorised vehicles or firearms.
No permitted change.
Sui Generis
Garages / car showrooms; Retail warehouses, Clubs; Nightclubs; Theatres; Amusement arcades; Hostels; Car & Van hire; Car Auctions; Petrol Filling Stations and Motorway Service Areas; Haulage Yards and Depots; Demolition / Waste Transfer and Scrapyards; Shooting range and Go-karting tracks; Kennels; Launderettes; Garden Nursery / Centres (can be A1); Veterinary clinic; Tanning Studio.
No permitted change.
Important Notes
Changes of use within a specific class do not require planning permission provided that the use subsists, the planning permission has been implemented and no restrictive condition is attached to the consent.
The permitted development rights shown in the final column do not require planning permission where all criteria set out in the order are met and no restrictive conditions apply.
The GPDO 1995 provides for permitted change of use of a building from Class A1 or Class A2 to a mixed use for the purposes of either Class A1 or Class A2 as a single flat, and from such a mixed use to Class A1 or Class A2 use provided the Class A1 or A2 use is situated on a floor below the single flat and various other conditions are met.
4. Sui Generis is a term, which refers to a use in a class of its own. Any planning use not falling within specific class within the Use Classes Order falls within this category.
5. A B1 use must be capable of being undertaken “in any residential area without detriment to the amenity of that area by reason of noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, soot, ash, dust or grit”.
6. It should be noted that permitted changes of use identified above are ratchet changes, i.e. cannot be made in reverse.
7. Various other permitted development rights exist for, inter alia industrial and warehouse buildings, dwelling houses, agricultural buildings, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals and development by statutory undertakers.
8. The above is intended as a general guide only. Reference must be made in the final instance to the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 as amended, the Use Classes Order 1987 as amended, The General Permitted Development Order 1995 as amended and Circular 03/2005