Use Class Changes in 2020/21

On the 21st July 2020 the government published the The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 which will come into force on the 1st September 2020. There will however, be a transitional period until 31st July 2021 where the former use classes will still apply to land and buildings for the purposes of the GPDO. Until that date you can continue to benefit from any changes of use as shown in our table here or benefit from the new groupings shown below -the choice is yours!  The government has issued an explanatory document on the changes and why they were made here.  Use Class A and D were removed as is B1(a) in England.

Three new use classes were introduced:-

Use Class E – Commercial, Business and Service
This use class brings together existing classes A1(shops), A2 (financial and professional services), A3 (restaurants and cafes) and B1 (business) as well as parts of classes D1 (non-residential institutions) and D2 (assembly and leisure) into one single use class to allow for changes of use without the need of planning permission. However shops and facilities with are deemed as being important to the local community have been placed into Use Class F2

Use Class F1 – Learning and non-residential institutions
This use class brings together some elements of Use Class D1 namely, schools, colleges etc., galleries, museum, public libraries, public hall or exhibition hall and churches etc.

Use Class F2 – Local community uses
This use class is designed to protect local community assets and include shops smaller than 280 m² and without another shop in 1,000 m², a hall or meeting place for the principal use of the local community (was use class D1), outdoor sport or recreation locations (was D2(e) use class) and swimming pools or skating rinks (was D2(e) use class)

Benefits and dis-advantages to the new changes!

There are always winners and losers to any changes in any legislation and this is no exception. Some items have been been moved to sui generis, that were in one use class. For example under the new use classes it will no longer be possible to move from a cinema to bingo hall or dance hall or vice-versa.

Conversely you will be able to go between shops, restaurants, cafés, clinics, crèches, banks, offices, light industrial, indoor sports to another use within the new Use Class E. This will certainly give a few options. It will, for example, allow Costa (other coffee shops are available) to open cafés where previously they needed permission to convert a shop. This is all subject to any restrictive covenants or restrictions placed by previous planning permission. Note that any external changes will probably require planning permission if not permitted by GPDO.

This new class allows for a mix of uses to reflect changing retail and business models. It therefore, recognises that a building may be in a number of uses concurrently or that a building may be used for different uses at different times of the day. Changes to another use, or mix of uses, within this class do not require planning permission. Bringing these uses together and allowing movement between them will give businesses greater freedom to adapt to changing circumstances and to respond more quickly to the needs of their communities.

Table of changes