General Permitted Development Order or GPDO

 

The General Permitted Development Order or GPDO for short, gives permission to carry out certain items such as extensions, rear dormers, erect fences, porches, outbuildings, satellite dishes, demolition etc. and much much more for residential, commercial properties and land across the country.

There are many items, both large and small, that can simply be built under permitted development subject to certain restrictions, building regs etc. in many cases, especially with houses, you can just go ahead. Or you might wish to opt for a certificate of lawfulness. Please get a fee proposal from us if you need assistance. We operate across England.

You might like to also check out the ever growing Common Projects section to see what is possible under permitted development.

 

property builder project

 General Permitted Development Order allows for exciting potential

 

The GPDO was first introduced in 1948 and there have been many updates since then. These can all be viewed via our GPDO Timeline page.

Your planning portal permitted development rights may be restricted due to either an Article 4 or a previous planning application. So it is worth checking. However unless the permitted development right requires an application (prior approval) there is no need to contact your local authority for permission. You might however wish to apply for a certificate of lawfulness if selling the property for example.

If you need guidance as to how you can maximise the permitted development on your property, consider booking a Zoom session with Ian Walmsley, the founder of Planning Geek.

 

Parts within the GPDO

 

There are four schedules and over 20 parts to the GPDO – use the accordion menu below to locate sections. Permitted development classes are within each part. There are 205 sections to the General Permitted Development Order – you can find every single section here on Planning Geek.

 

Part 19 - Development by the Crown or for national security purposes

Class A – General development by the Crown

Class B – Extension or alteration of an operational Crown building

Class C – Developments on operational Crown land

Class D – Hard surfaces for operational Crown buildings

Class E – Development on operational Crown land relating to an airbase

Class F – Development on operational land within an airbase

Class G – Development on operational land outside an airbase

Class H – Development on operational land by the Crown connected with air traffic services

Class I – Emergency use of land by the Crown connected with air traffic services

Class J – Use of land etc by the Crown connected with air traffic services

Class K – Use of land by the Crown in relation to surveys etc

Class L – Use of buildings by the Crown on an airbase connected to air transport services etc

Class M – Development by the Crown on operational Crown land connected to rail

Class N – Development by the Crown on operational Crown land connected to shipping etc

Class O – Use of land by the Crown for spreading of dredged material

Class P – Development by the Crown on operational Crown land etc relating to aids to shipping

Class Q – Development by the Crown relating to an emergency

Class QA – Development by the Crown relating to a pandemic

Class R – Erection etc of gates, fences etc by the Crown for national security purposes

Class S – Closed circuit television cameras for national security purposes

Class T – Electronic communication apparatus etc for national security purposes

Class TA – Development by the Crown on a closed defence site

Paragraph U – Definitions of words and phrases used in Part 19

 

Prior Approval

 

Some items within the permitted development (GPDO) require what is called ‘prior approval‘. This involves submitting a request to the local authority. They can only assess the application on items such as flood risk, noise, contamination depending upon the works to be carried out. This prior approval takes 28 or 56 days, depending upon the request. Note: permitted development rights do not apply to flats in many situations.

Revisions

 

The last major revision to the GPDO was in 2015. This forms a baseline to the current version. Please do not rely upon this original version as there have been many changes. This website will always aim to be up to date with all the changes. Although if you wish to read the original version, you can find it here – however it will bear no resemblance to today’s version. You can view all the various revisions via opur GPDO timeline/ history section.

To date, over twenty revisions have taken place since 2015. Thankfully Planning Geek, will make all the changes on each page as they happen.

 

 

 

 

Page updated: 30th December 2023

<