Filming and Photography Planning Permission

Filming and photography can look deceptively simple from a planning point of view. A camera crew may arrive for a few hours and leave without anything having changed in planning terms, while a larger production can turn a house, field or industrial site into a temporary commercial location with structures, traffic and activity that do amount to development.

This section explains the planning side of location work in England, but we also cover the practical permissions which often sit alongside planning. That includes location agreements, council film permits, road closures, production bases, protected sites and drones.

The first question is not which permitted development class applies. It is whether what you want to do amounts to development at all. Once we know that, we can work out whether the shoot needs no planning permission, can rely on Class B or Class E, or needs a planning application.

Does every film shoot need planning permission?

No. Planning permission is only needed for development. Under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 that can include operational development, such as building or engineering works, and a material change in the use of land or buildings.

A small crew filming in a field for an afternoon may make no material change at all. The same can be true of a modest one-off shoot inside a house. At the other end of the scale, repeated bookings, large crews, temporary roads, lighting towers, catering, generators, sets and unit bases can materially change the character of a site or involve physical works.

There is no statutory rule which says filming becomes development after a particular number of hours or days. Duration matters, but so do scale, intensity, structures, traffic, the normal use of the location and whether that normal use can genuinely continue.

Which filming guide do you need?

We have split the subject up so you do not have to work through one enormous page.

• Commercial filming and advertising covers film, television, online video, adverts and the planning routes under Class B and Class E
• Still photography and product shoots covers commercial stills, branded content, regular location use and why Class E is not a general photography right
• Filming and photoshoots at a house looks at occasional shoots, hiring out a home, conservation areas, listed buildings and mixed commercial use
• Fields, woodland and protected locations covers open land, sites of special scientific interest, protected trees, access and other location constraints
• Temporary film sets and structures covers Class E works, Class B moveable structures, height limits, access works and reinstatement
• Filming permits and location permissions explains the permissions which are not planning permission, including public land and film-office processes
• Roads, highways and pavements covers traffic management, road closures, parking suspensions, equipment and public access
• Night filming covers filming hours, noise, artificial lighting and the separate statutory nuisance regime
• Unit bases, trailers and caravans deals with production facilities and the statutory caravan definition
• Drones and aerial filming separates planning from Civil Aviation Authority rules, airspace restrictions and take-off or landing permissions

Where do Class B and Class E fit?

Class B of Part 4 grants a general temporary use right for land for up to 28 days in a calendar year, subject to important exclusions. It does not apply where the land in question is a building or within the curtilage of a building, and it now excludes the siting of any caravan apart from a narrow festival exception.

Class E of Part 4 is the specific commercial filmmaking right. It can cover land or buildings for up to 12 months in any 27-month period and temporary structures, works, plant or machinery required for the production. It is subject to mandatory prior approval and cannot be used on several protected or designated sites.

Those rights matter only where the proposed activity is development in the first place. Permitted development is planning permission granted nationally. It is not a declaration that every activity described by the class automatically needs permission.

Planning permission is only one permission

A planning route does not give a production the right to enter land, occupy a road, suspend parking, close a highway, fly a drone or interfere with protected trees or habitats. A private landowner may be happy with the shoot while the highway authority, Natural England or the Civil Aviation Authority still has a separate role.

There is also no single national filming permit. The permission you need depends on ownership, the activity and the location. Our filming permits guide works through the common routes.

A practical location check before you commit

For a serious candidate location I would normally want to know:

• what the land or building is lawfully used for now
• how many filming and set-up days are proposed
• crew numbers, vehicles, deliveries and operating hours
• temporary sets, trackway, lighting, generators and welfare facilities
• the unit base and whether any production trailers may be caravans
• planning and heritage designations, protected trees and ecological constraints
• whether road, parking, public land or drone permissions are likely to be needed

That allows the straightforward sites to be separated from those which need prior approval, a planning application or specialist input before the production becomes committed to them.

Primary planning sources

The planning starting point is section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The temporary permitted development rights are in Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO. Government guidance on when a material change of use needs planning permission is available through Planning Practice Guidance.

This section deals primarily with England because the permitted development legislation differs elsewhere in the UK.

Filming and photography planning resources

Location filming can involve planning permission, permitted development, private or public land permissions, roads, protected sites, production bases and drone restrictions. Use the guide which best matches the issue you are dealing with.

Filming and Photography Planning Permission Page Created: 11th October 2026