The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order, 1948

In 1948 we saw the first Use Classes Order issued. This contained a lot of uses which would not be recognisable to many today. Uses such as funfairs, garages, petrol stations & public houses were outside of the Use Classes Order of 1948 or Sui Generis as we know it today.

This order applied to the whole of England and Wales.

A “shop” was defined as a building used for the carrying on of any retail trade or retail business wherein the primary purpose is the selling of goods (excluding refreshments other than light refreshments) by retail, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing includes a building used for the purpose!:1 of a hairdresser, undertaker, ticket agency or receiving office for goods to be washed, cleaned or repaired, or for other purposes appropriate to a shopping area, but does not include a building used as an amusement arcade, pin-table saloon, funfair, garage, petrol filling station, hotel or premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquors for consumption on the premises.

“light refreshments ” means eatables not cooked on the premises, and beverages.

An “office” included a bank.

The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 stated that the use thereof for any other purpose of the same class shall not be deemed to involve development.

Use Classes

Class I	Use as a shop for any purpose except as:- (i) a fried fish shop; (ii) a trip shop; (iii) a shop for the sale of pet animals or birds; (iv) a cats-meat shop
Class II	Use as an office for any purpose.
Class III	Use as a light industrial building for any purpose.
Class IV	Use as a general industrial building for any purpose.
Class V	Use for any work which is registerable under the Alkali, etc. Works Regulation Act, 1906, as extended by the Alkali, etc. Works Orders, 1928 to 1939, except a process ancillary to the getting, dressing or treatment of minerals, carried on in or adjacent to a quarry or mine. Use for any of the following processes, except as aforesaid, so far as not registerable under the above Act: – (i) smelting, calcining, sintering or other reduction of ores or minerals; (ii) converting, re-heating, annealing, hardening or carburising, forging or casting, of iron or other metals ; (iii) galvanising; (iv) recovering of metal from scrap; (v) pickling or treatment of metal in acid; (vi) chromium plating.
Class VI	Use for any of the following processes so far as not included in Class V and except a process ancillary to the getting, dressing or treatment of minerals, carried on in or adjacent to a quarry or mine: – (i) burning of building bricks; (ii) lime and dolomite burning; (iii) carbonisation of coal in coke ovens; (iv) production of calcium carbide, lampblack or zinc oxide; (v) crushing or screening of stone or slag.
Class VII	Use for any of the following processes so far as not included in Class V:- The production or employment of (i) cyanogen or its compounds; (ii) liquid or gaseous sulphur dioxide; (iii) sulphur chlorides. Salt Glazing Sintering of sulphur bearing materials. The manufacture of glass, where the sodium sulphate used exceeds 1.5 per cent. of the total weight of the melt. The production of ultramarine or zinc chloride.
Class VIII	Use for any of the following processes so far as not included in Class V:- The distilling, refining or blending of oils, the production or employment of cellulose lacquers (except their employment in garages in connection with minor repairs), hot pitch or bitumen, or pyridine ; the stoving of enamelled ware ; the production of amyl acetate, aromatic esters, butyric acid, caramel, hexamine, iodoform, B-naphthol, resin products ( except synthetic resins, plastic moulding or extrusion compositions and plastic sheets, rods, tubes, filaments, fibres or optical components ·produced by casting, calendering, moulding, shaping or extrusion), salicylic acid, or sulphonated organic compounds; paint and varnish manufacture (excluding mixing, milling and grinding) ; the production of rubber from scrap ; or the manufacture of acetylene from calcium carbide, for sale or for use in a further chemical process
Class IX	Use for carrying on any of the following industries, businesses or trades so far as not included in Class V : — Animal charcoal manufacturer. Blood albumen maker. Blood boiler. Bone boiler or steamer. Bone burner. Bone grinder. Breeder of maggots from putrescible animal matter. Candle maker. Catgut manufacturer. Chitterling or nettlings boiler. Dealer in rags or bones (including receiving, storing, sorting or manipulating rags in or likely to become in an offensive condition, or any bones, rabbit-skins, fat or putrescible animal products of a like nature). Fat melter or fat extractor. Fellmonger. Fish curer. Fish oil manufacturer. Fish skin dresser or scraper. Glue maker. Gut scraper or gut cleaner. Leather dresser. Maker of meal for feeding poultry, dogs, cattle, or other animals from any fish, blood, bone, fat or animal offal, either in an offensive condition or subjected to any process causing noxious or injurious effluvia. Manufacturer of manure from bones, fish, fish offal, blood, spent hops, beans or other putrescible animal or vegetable matter. Parchment maker. Size maker. Skin drier. Soap boiler. Tallow melter or refiner. Tanner. Tripe boiler or cleaner.
Class X	Use as a wholesale warehouse or repository for any purpose, , except storage of offensive or dangerous goods.
Class XI	Use as a repository for any purpose except storage of offensive or dangerous goods.
Class XII	Use as a building for public worship or religious instruction or for the social or recreational activities of the religious body using the building.
Class XIII	Use as a residential or boarding school, a residential college, an orphanage or a home or institution providing for the boarding, care and maintenance of children (other than a hospital, home, hostel, or institution included in Class XVII or Class XVIII).
Class XIV	Use as a boarding or guest house, a residential club, a hostel or a hotel providing sleeping accommodation.
Class XV	Use (other than for persons of unsound mind, mental defectives or epileptic persons) as a convalescent home, a nursing home, a sanatorium or a hospital.
Class XVI	Use (other than residentially) as a health centre, a school treatment centre, a clinic, a creche, a day nursery or a dispensary, or use as a consulting room or surgery unattached to the residence of the consultant or practitioner.
Class XVII	Use as a hospital, home or institution. for persons of unsound mind, mental defectives, or epileptic persons.
Class XVIII	Use as a home, hostel or institution in which persons may be detained by order of a court or which is approved by one of His Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State for persons required to reside there as a condition of a probation or a supervision order.
Class XIX	Use as a theatre, a cinema or a music hall
Class XX	Use as an art gallery (other than for business purposes), a museum, a public library or a public reading room.
Class XXI	Use as a dance ball, a skating rink, a swimming bath, a. turkish or , other vapour or foam bath or a gymnasium, or for indoor games.
Class XXII	Use as a public hall, a concert hall, an exhibition ball, a social centre, a community centre or a non-residential club.

SI 1948/954 was laid before Parliament on 5th May 1948 and came into operation on 1st July 1948.

You can view the original version here.

There were no amendments of the Use Classes Order 1948

This order was replaced by The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order, 1950

Page Updated: 29th November 2023

Other Planning Use Classes Sections

Which Use Class is my building?	UCO Timeline
Part B - B2 - B8	Use Class F1
Part C - C1 - C2 - C2A - C3 - C4 - C5	Use Class F2
Use Class E	Sui Generis
Directory of Uses	Changes in 2020/21