Advertisement Deemed Consent

Most outdoor signs in England are advertisements in planning law, and most need some form of consent before they go up. There are three routes: some signs are wholly exempt, some have deemed consent (automatic permission, provided you stay within set limits), and the rest need express consent, which is a formal application to the council. This page is about the middle route, and it takes each deemed-consent class in turn so you can work out which one covers your sign. For the wider picture of how the three routes fit together, start with our advertisement consent overview.

Where advertisement deemed consent comes from

Deemed consent is granted by Schedule 3 of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007. Schedule 3 sets out sixteen operative classes of advertisement, numbered 1 to 15 and 17 (the former Class 16 for telephone kiosks was revoked in 2019, and Class 17 for electric-vehicle charging points was added in 2011). If your sign falls within one of these classes and meets that class’s conditions, you have automatic permission and do not need to apply for express consent. If it does not, you generally do.

The figures below are a working guide to the size, height and illumination limits attached to each class. Always check the exact wording of the class against the regulations before you rely on it, because several classes carry detailed sub-conditions.

Two things that apply to every class

Whatever class your sign falls under, two further sets of rules always apply on top of the class’s own conditions:

• the five standard conditions in Schedule 2 to the Regulations, which in short require the site owner’s permission; that the sign does not endanger road, rail, water or air users or obscure any traffic sign or signal; that it is kept clean, tidy and safe; and that the site is left tidy when the sign is removed
• the concept of an area of special control, in which many classes apply more tightly (smaller sizes, lower heights) and some do not apply at all

Deemed consent can also be taken away. A council can serve a discontinuance notice on an individual sign, or make a direction removing deemed consent from a class in a particular area, so a sign that has deemed consent today is not guaranteed to keep it. The advertisement consent overview explains those mechanisms.

Class 1: functional signs of public bodies

Signs put up by government departments and their agencies, local authorities, statutory undertakers (utilities), public transport undertakers and Transport for London, wholly to announce or direct in connection with their functions, where the sign is reasonably needed and not covered by another class. Illumination is allowed only where reasonably required, and a sign under this class may not exceed 1.55 m².

Class 2: identification, direction and name-plate signs at your own premises

The “name-plate” class. It covers small signs identifying, directing or warning about the land or building they are on (up to 0.3 m², not illuminated); professional or trade name-plates at the premises where that person works (up to 0.3 m²); and signs for institutions such as schools, churches, clubs, hotels, hostels and B&Bs, or blocks of flats (up to 1.2 m²). Illumination is generally not allowed, with a narrow exception for medical and veterinary signs displayed by static, controlled means.

Class 3: temporary signs

A broad temporary class covering, among others: estate agents’ sale and letting boards (0.5 m² for a residential board, up to 2 m² for other uses, removed within 14 days of completion); boards advertising a sale of goods or livestock on the land; hoardings and boards for building works in progress; signs for local, non-commercial events such as fêtes and fairs; agricultural demonstration signs; and signs for a visiting travelling circus or fair. Each has its own size cap and time limit, none may be illuminated, and most must come down within 14 days of the event or sale finishing.

Class 4: illuminated signs on business premises

Illuminated signs advertising the business, goods or services at the premises where they are displayed, split into Class 4A (premises in a retail park facing a communal car park) and Class 4B (other business premises). Both carry detailed limits on projection, height (the lowest part at least 2.5 m above ground; the top no higher than 4.6 m or the first-floor window sill, whichever is lower) and illumination method. Neither applies within a conservation area, AONB, National Park or the Broads except for signs already up when the area was designated (for up to five years). An illuminated fascia or projecting sign in one of those protected areas will usually need express consent.

Class 5: other (non-illuminated) signs on business premises

The everyday fascia and shop-sign class: non-illuminated signs advertising the business, goods or services at the premises. On a shop, the sign must be on a wall containing a shop window. Height is capped at 4.6 m or the first-floor window sill (whichever is lower), lettering at 0.75 m high, and a single placard or poster at 1.55 m². Tighter limits apply in an area of special control. This is the class most ordinary shopfront signs rely on.

Class 6: signs on the forecourt of business premises

Signs on a business forecourt advertising the same matters as Class 5. The total on any one forecourt may not exceed 4.6 m², no single sign may exceed 1.55 m², nothing may be illuminated, and no part may be more than 4.6 m above the ground (3.6 m in an area of special control).

Class 7: flags

Flag advertisements on a single flagstaff, from the roof (7A), projecting from elsewhere on the building (7AA), within the curtilage (7AB), on a beach or marina flying a Blue Flag (7AC) or in a park flying a Green Flag (7AD), plus flags on a housing development site while homes are being built and sold (7B). What a flag may show is tightly limited (the occupier’s name or device, a specific event at the building, a sports-club device, certain award-scheme devices, or the NHS device). Several sub-classes do not apply in conservation areas, AONBs, National Parks, the Broads or areas of special control.

Class 8: hoardings around commercial building sites

Advertisements on a hoarding enclosing land where commercial, industrial or business building work with full planning permission is taking place. Limits include a maximum 38 m² per advertisement, height no more than 4.6 m, a three-year cap, advance written notice to the council, and only controlled static illumination. It generally does not apply in a conservation area, National Park, AONB or the Broads.

Class 9: advertisements on highway structures

Advertisements on the six-sheet panel structures authorised on the highway under section 115E of the Highways Act 1980, for example some bus-shelter and street-furniture panels. No sign may exceed 2.16 m², none may be illuminated, and height is capped at 4.6 m (3.6 m in an area of special control).

Class 10: neighbourhood watch and CCTV scheme signs

Small signs (up to 0.2 m², not illuminated) on or near highway land giving notice that a neighbourhood watch, similar scheme or CCTV surveillance scheme is operating, set up jointly with the local policing body. Advance written particulars and a certificate must go to the council, highway-authority consent is needed for highway land, and the sign must come down within 14 days if the scheme ends.

Class 11: directional signs to a new housing site

A single-surface sign directing buyers to a site where residential development is taking place. It must be small (up to 0.15 m²), must not look like a traffic sign or use reflective material, must sit within two miles of the site entrance and away from real traffic signs, must not be illuminated, and cannot stay up beyond completion of the development or two years, whichever is first.

Class 12: signs inside buildings

Advertisements displayed inside a building, with two exceptions: signs within about one metre of an external window that are meant to be read from outside (which fall under Schedule 1 instead), and signs on the glazed surface of a telephone kiosk. In practice this means most genuinely internal signage does not need consent.

Class 13: long-established advertisement sites

A site that has been used continually for the preceding ten years to display advertisements without express consent, with no material increase in use or material change in the manner of use over that period. If the structure is removed or destroyed it cannot be rebuilt to keep the display going, and illumination is only allowed if the sign was already illuminated on 6 April 2007.

London Borough of Hackney v JCDecaux (UK) Ltd [2022] EWHC 2621 (Admin) is an important warning about that ten-year requirement. The High Court held that the correct question is whether a break in display was sufficiently material to bring one period of use to an end. If it was, the ten-year period starts again when advertising resumes.

The case also confirms that Class 13 is concerned with actual use for displaying advertisements, not simply an intention or contract to advertise. Earlier use outside the relevant ten-year window cannot be used to fill a gap within it, and the person claiming deemed consent carries the burden of proving the continual use. A short interruption may be immaterial on its facts, but there is no separate “exceptional circumstances” exception which automatically preserves the clock.

Class 14: signs kept up after express consent expires

A sign that stays up after its express consent has expired, provided doing so would not breach a condition of that consent and a renewal has not been refused. The old consent’s terms and conditions continue to apply, the site must have been used continuously since expiry, and (unless the original consent allowed it) the sign may not be illuminated or use moving or sequential features.

Class 15: advertisements on balloons

A sign displayed on, or consisting of, a balloon no more than 60 m above ground. The site must not be in an AONB, conservation area, National Park, the Broads or an area of special control; only one balloon advertisement is allowed at a time; and the site may be used for balloon advertising on no more than 10 days in any calendar year.

Class 17: advertisements on electric-vehicle charging points

Added in 2011, this covers a small sign on an EV charging point, displayed only by the person who installed the charger or supplies its electricity. It may show only that person’s name or device, must not exceed 70 cm², must not be illuminated, and is limited to one sign (or two, facing opposite ways, where the installer and electricity supplier are different).

What happened to Class 16?

Class 16 used to grant deemed consent for advertisements on telephone kiosks. It was revoked on 25 May 2019, so there is no Class 16 today. Signs on telephone kiosks now fall to be considered under the ordinary rules and, where relevant, need express consent.

Which class covers my sign, and what if none does?

If your sign fits a class above and meets its conditions, you have deemed consent and do not need to apply. If it is bigger, taller, illuminated where the class does not allow it, or simply does not fit any class, you will normally need express consent, which is a formal advertisement consent application to the council. There is a fee, the council decides within eight weeks, and there is a right of appeal if it refuses or does not decide in time (from 1 April 2026 straightforward advertisement appeals follow a faster procedure). Our advertisement consent page explains how to apply and what the mechanisms are, and our planning fees guide covers the cost. Displaying an advertisement without the consent it needs is a criminal offence, so it is always worth checking first.

Deemed consent can also be taken away. Where a sign is causing substantial injury to the amenity of the area, or a danger to the public, the council can serve a discontinuance notice requiring the display to stop, and there is a right of appeal against it. That appeal has to be in before the date the notice takes effect, and if it is, the notice has no effect until the appeal is decided: our guide to an advertisement consent appeal covers both routes. Our guide to advertisement enforcement explains that notice, the offence and the defence to it.

Advertisement Consent relevant legislation

Advertisement control is a self-contained regime: the powers sit in the main planning Act, the detail in the 2007 Regulations. When checking any provision, use the “Changes to Legislation” panel on legislation.gov.uk, as later amendments are not always shown in the main text.

• Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 (SI 2007/783): the whole regime, exempt classes, deemed consent, express consent, areas of special control
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 220: the power to make advertisement regulations
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 222: planning permission deemed granted, so no separate application is needed
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 224: the offence of displaying without consent
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 225: powers to remove placards and posters
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 336: the definition of “advertisement”

 

 

Advertisement Deemed Consent Page Updated: 30th August 2026