This note concerns the change almost by stealth by the government to the Use Classes Order 1987 under the General Permitted development Order which you may have heard me talk about in our applications over the years. This statutory process has been somewhat speeded up by the onset of the virus but the government’s proposals had first been put out to consultation back at the end of 2018. The government now sees it as necessary to make it easier for uses in the high street to be able to change from one use to another without necessarily requiring planning permission and so it has merged many uses into one use class. This is in policy terms to prevent the end of the High Stree as we know it which was already in decline prior to Covid.

We used to say for instance that it was quite straight forward for a restaurant use (Class A3) to be changed to use as a shop (Class A1) or for a drinking establishment (A4) to change its use to restaurant or café (A3). The reason for this was that to perform this kind of change did not involve a costly application for planning permission. The Order stated that it was “permitted development” and did not require permission.

On the other hand, to change from a shop use (A1) to a restaurant (A3) did require a costly planning application.

The government has now swept away the existing order of  the A use classes and created a new category – classes E and F.

I set out here as simple an explanation as I can without it getting too complicated

 

The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020 No.757)

This was made on 20 July and takes effect on 1 September 2020 and makes important changes to the already much amended 1987 Use Classes Order. The changes are quite complex, because of the need to take account of various knock-on effects and the consequent requirement to include various transitional provisions to ensure a reasonably smooth move to the new and revised Use Classes. This is the simple version!

Parts A and D of the original Schedule to the UCO are entirely revoked, which puts an end to Use Classes A1 (Shops), A2 (Financial and Professional services), A3 (Restaurants), A4 (Drinking establishments) and A5 (Hot food takeaway), and Classes D1 (non-residential institutions) and D2 (Assembly and leisure). These are replaced by new Use Classes in Schedule 2, except for those listed below that have now become sui generis uses.

Class B1 (Business) is also abolished as a separate Use Class, and is also subsumed within a new Use Class in Schedule 2.

Use Class B2 (General Industrial) remains in what is now Schedule 1, in an amended form. I will summarise the new, revised and surviving Use Classes below.

Several of the uses previously within specified Use Classes have now been added to the list of sui generis uses (i.e in a category of their own) set out in Article 3(6). These are uses:

(p) as a public house, wine bar, or drinking establishment [formerly A4],
(q) as a drinking establishment with expanded food provision [which fell awkwardly between A4 and A3],
(r) as a hot food takeaway for the sale of hot food where consumption of that food is mostly undertaken off the premises [formerly A5]
(s) as a venue for live music performance [formerly within D2, and possibly also an ancillary use in some cases within other Use Classes],
(t) a cinema [formerly D2(a)],
(u) a concert hall [formerly D2(b)],
(v) a bingo hall [formerly D2(c)],
(x) a dance hall [formerly D2(d)].

This has a number of potential consequences.

First, where several of these uses fell under one and the same Use Class in the previous version of the UCO (such as, for example, a cinema, a concert hall, a bingo hall or a dance hall – all of which fell within Use Class D2) a change of use between any of those uses would not have been development.

Now that each of these uses is a sui generis use, a change of use from one of these uses to another use, even though it was formerly within the same Use Class will now constitute development, and will require planning permission. However, these changes do not take effect until 1 September, and so (at the time of writing) there is a four week period in which somebody wishing to make a change of use from, say, a cinema to a bingo hall can still do so without requiring planning permission. However, it might be advisable to preserve dated documentary and photographic evidence of the change of use, and even possibly to exhibit that material to a statutory declaration recording the change of use, in order to counter any allegation in future that the change of use required planning permission and was therefore a breach of planning control. After 31 August, however, it will no longer be possible to make such changes of use without planning permission (unless they are permitted by the GPDO).

The former Schedule to the UCO (now SCHEDULE 1) contains the following Use Classes:

PART B

Class B2. General industrial

Use for the carrying on of an industrial process other than one falling within the uses described in Schedule 2, Class E, sub-paragraph (g).

Class B8. Storage or distribution

Use for storage or as a distribution centre.

PART C

[This part is not affected by the amendment regulations, and so does not require further summary here. Use Classes C1, C2, C2A, C3 and C4 therefore continue unchanged.]

The new SCHEDULE 2 contains the following Use Classes:

PART A (Commercial, Business and Service)

Class E. Commercial, Business and Service

Use, or part use, for all or any of the following purposes—

(a) for the display or retail sale of goods, other than hot food, principally to visiting members of the public [formerly A1],

(b) for the sale of food and drink principally to visiting members of the public where consumption of that food and drink is mostly undertaken on the premises [formerly A3],

(c) for the provision of the following kinds of services principally to visiting members of the public [all formerly within A2] —
(i) financial services,
(ii) professional services (other than health or medical services), or
(iii) any other services which it is appropriate to provide in a commercial, business or service locality,

(d) for indoor sport, recreation or fitness, not involving motorised vehicles or firearms, principally to visiting members of the public [formerly within D2(e)].

(e) for the provision of medical or health services, principally to visiting members of the public, except the use of premises attached to the residence of the consultant or practitioner [formerly D1(a)],

(f) for a crèche, day nursery or day centre, not including a residential use, principally to visiting members of the public [formerly D1(b)],

(g) for—
(i) an office to carry out any operational or administrative functions [formerly B1(a)],
(ii) the research and development of products or processes [formerly B1 (b)], or
(iii) any industrial process [formerly B1(c)],
– being a use [in all three cases, as in the former Class B1] 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.

The new Use Class E does include “any other services which it is appropriate to provide in a commercial, business or service locality”, and it may be that all the uses formerly listed in Use Class A1 would now come within this category. If so, the new Use Class could be even wider than the Use Classes that it replaces, and might well embrace other services that one might reasonably expect to find in a commercial, business or service locality. These could include, for example, a nail bar, a tattoo parlour, a body toning salon, a tanning studio, etc. etc. If this interpretation is correct, then there is scope for a very wide range of uses that would previously have been regarded as sui generis.

PART B (Local Community and Learning)

Class F.1 Learning and non-residential institutions

Any use not including residential use—

(a) for the provision of education [formerly D1(c)],
(b) for the display of works of art (otherwise than for sale or hire) [formerly D1(d)],
(c) as a museum [formerly D1(e)],
(d) as a public library or public reading room [formerly D1(f)],
(e) as a public hall or exhibition hall [formerly D1(g)],
(f) for, or in connection with, public worship or religious instruction [formerly D1(h)],
(g) as a law court [formerly D1(i)].

Class F.2 Local community

Use as—

(a) a shop mostly selling essential goods, including food, to visiting members of the public in circumstances where—
(i) the shop’s premises cover an area not more than 280 metres square, and
(ii) there is no other such facility within 1000 metre radius of the shop’s location,

(b) a hall or meeting place for the principal use of the local community,

(c) an area or place for outdoor sport or recreation, not involving motorised vehicles or firearms [formerly within D2(e)],

(d) an indoor or outdoor swimming pool or skating rink [also formerly within D2(e)]
By way of example it will become easier for a shop to change use to a restaurant and no planning permission will generally be required. On the other hand, it is will now be harder for a cinema to change use to a concert hall or vice versa because this will now require planning permission which is not the case until 31^st August 2020.

Always happy to answer any questions on the detail of this .