Valentino Plus Ltd v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government & Ors [2015] EWHC 19 (Admin)
The point in plain English: The old GPDO right allowing a shop to become a mixed use with flats did not require the shop and flats to remain one planning unit. Separate, self-contained flats could exist alongside the commercial use within the same building.
What happened
The dispute concerned the former Class F in Part 3 of the 1995 GPDO. A proposal would have converted an upper floor above retail premises into a self-contained flat with no functional or physical connection to the shop below.
The objector argued that the words mixed use required a single planning unit containing both activities.
What the High Court decided
HHJ Sycamore dismissed the challenge. The GPDO’s own definition of a flat required separate and self-contained accommodation. Properly construed, the Class F right could therefore produce separate planning units within the same building.
The expression mixed use in that particular provision described the combination of uses in the building; it did not require a functional relationship between the shop and the flats.
Why Valentino matters
The precise Class F provision considered in 2015 has since changed. The modern permitted-development route is found elsewhere in the current GPDO, so the judgment should be used for its interpretative point rather than as a copy of today’s rules.
See Planning Geek’s current guide to Class G mixed-use permitted development.
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