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This page explains Article 4 directions under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 as they apply in Wales. England has a different GPDO and a different Article 4 procedure.
Article 3 grants the planning permission behind the permitted development rights in Schedule 2. Article 4 allows that permission to be withdrawn for specified development or within a specified area.
An Article 4 direction does not make the development impossible. Its effect is normally that the development can no longer rely on the GPDO and a planning application is required instead.
The current Welsh procedure changed substantially on 20th October 2022. Articles 5 and 6 of the 1995 Order were omitted for Wales and the procedure for making, varying and withdrawing Article 4 directions was moved into a new Schedule 2A.
People sometimes say Wales is attractive for HMOs because there are no Article 4 directions stopping a change from a normal house to a small HMO. That starts with the wrong question. An Article 4 direction can only withdraw a permitted development right which exists. In Wales the GPDO permits a change from C4 HMO back to C3, but it does not grant a C3 to C4 permitted development right. A C3 to C4 change therefore already requires planning permission without an Article 4 direction.
What can an Article 4 direction do in Wales?
Under Article 4(1), the Welsh Ministers or the appropriate local planning authority may make a direction where they are satisfied it is expedient that specified permitted development should not be carried out unless planning permission is granted following an application.
A direction can remove the Article 3 permission from:
- all or some development within a particular Part, Class or paragraph of Schedule 2 in a specified area
- a particular development falling within the relevant Part, Class or paragraph
The direction therefore needs to identify the permitted development right being withdrawn and the land or development affected. It cannot simply operate as a general planning control without reference to the GPDO right.
There are also exceptions. Article 4(1) cannot be used against Class B of Part 22 or Class B of Part 23, and Article 4 contains further protections for specified statutory development, Part 38 development, emergency development and electronic communications development.
An Article 4 direction removes permission, not the use class
This distinction is particularly important in Wales because the Welsh Use Classes Order and the Welsh GPDO do different jobs.
A use may sit within a defined Use Class but still need planning permission to change into that use. Conversely, the GPDO may grant a permitted change between two different Use Classes.
The HMO example above shows the first situation. Class C4 exists in Wales, but the Welsh GPDO only grants the permitted change from C4 to C3. There is no equivalent of the English permitted C3 to C4 route for an Article 4 direction to withdraw.
The newer C3, C5 and C6 housing classes provide the opposite example. Since 20th October 2022 the Welsh GPDO has granted specified changes between a main residence, a second home and a short-term let. Those are real permitted development rights, so a Welsh local planning authority can use an Article 4 direction, supported by robust local evidence, to remove them in a defined area.
The Welsh Article 4 procedure changed in 2022
The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development etc.) (Amendment) (Wales) Order 2022 simplified and reorganised the procedure.
Before the change, the procedural rules sat mainly in Articles 5 and 6. Those Articles were omitted for Wales and replaced by Schedule 2A. There are now two principal routes:
- a direction without immediate effect
- a direction with immediate effect for specified categories of development
Another important change is that Welsh Ministers no longer have to confirm a local planning authority’s direction before it can take effect. The local planning authority carries out the confirmation process, although the Welsh Ministers must be notified and retain powers to vary or withdraw a direction.
Article 4 direction without immediate effect
For the ordinary non-immediate route, Schedule 2A requires the local planning authority to publicise the direction as soon as practicable after making it.
The procedure includes:
- a local advertisement
- site notices displayed for at least six weeks, normally at no fewer than two locations within the affected area
- service of notice on owners and occupiers, subject to limited impracticability exceptions
- at least 21 days for representations
- notification to the Welsh Ministers on the same day the direction is first advertised or displayed
The notice must state the proposed date on which the direction will take effect. That date must be at least 28 days, but no more than two years, after the start of the representation period.
The direction only takes effect on that date if it has been confirmed by the local planning authority. Before confirming it, the authority must take account of representations and must wait until at least 28 days after the latest relevant notice was served or published, or any longer period specified by the Welsh Ministers.
Article 4 direction with immediate effect
An immediate direction is available only in defined circumstances. The main route covers development permitted by:
- Part 1 – development within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse
- Part 2 – minor operations
- Part 3 – changes of use, apart from specified elements of Class I
- Part 4 – temporary buildings and uses
- Part 31 – demolition of buildings
For this route the planning authority must consider that the development would be prejudicial to the proper planning of its area or would constitute a threat to the amenities of the area.
There is also a separate immediate route within all or part of a conservation area for specified householder, minor operation and demolition rights listed in paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 2A.
An immediate direction takes effect when the required notice is served on the occupier or owner, or, where individual service is impracticable in the circumstances allowed by Schedule 2A, when the notice is first advertised or displayed.
It does not last indefinitely without confirmation. An immediate direction expires six months after it takes effect unless the local planning authority confirms it before the end of that period.
Some permitted development rights are protected from Article 4
Article 4 contains several exceptions which mean a direction cannot necessarily be used against every right in Schedule 2.
Among the current protections are:
- Class B of Part 22 and Class B of Part 23, which are excluded from the Article 4(1) power itself
- specified Part 11 statutory development
- Class B of Part 13
- Part 37 and Part 38 development
- specified emergency development
- certain electronic communications development, including Regulation 2020/1070 small cell systems
- specified maintenance and operational development by statutory undertakers unless the direction expressly provides otherwise
These are technical exceptions. When we build the relevant Welsh Parts and Classes, their pages will cross-reference Article 4 where the ability to withdraw the right is restricted.
Can the Welsh Ministers intervene?
Yes. Removing the old confirmation requirement did not remove the Welsh Ministers from the process.
The local planning authority must send the required material to the Welsh Ministers. The Welsh Ministers may specify a longer period before confirmation and may themselves make, vary or withdraw an Article 4 direction in accordance with Schedule 2A.
So the 2022 reform made the local procedure more self-contained, but it did not turn Article 4 into an entirely local power beyond Welsh Government involvement.
Article 4 compensation
Compensation can arise in some circumstances when permitted development rights are withdrawn. The basic statutory route is section 108 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Planning Geek already hosts a copy of that section locally.
The compensation rules are not identical for every permitted development right, so it is dangerous to use a simple rule such as “every Article 4 direction needs 12 months’ notice”. For prescribed categories of permitted development, the Town and Country Planning (Compensation) (Wales) (No. 2) Regulations 2014 limit compensation to applications made within 12 months beginning with the day the direction takes effect.
The 2022 Welsh changes added the new Class I C3/C5/C6 permitted development rights to that prescribed list. The 2026 Welsh GPDO amendment then added Class BA of Part 4 from 1st June 2026. For prescribed development, compensation can be excluded where the statutory notice requirements are met and the withdrawal takes effect not less than 12 months and not more than 24 months after the notice is published, subject to the other conditions in section 108. This is why Welsh authorities introducing second-home and short-term-let Article 4 directions have commonly used a delayed effective date.
Compensation is therefore a separate question from whether a direction is legally capable of taking immediate effect. The correct answer depends on the particular permitted development right being withdrawn and the compensation regulations applying to it.
Article 4 and second homes in Wales
The most visible modern use of Welsh Article 4 directions concerns the C3, C5 and C6 residential use classes.
Welsh Government introduced these classes and the related GPDO rights in 2022 so that changes between main homes, second homes and short-term lets could ordinarily take place without a planning application. It also made clear that local planning authorities could disapply those rights through Article 4 where robust local evidence justified doing so.
That is a very different legal position from the C3 to C4 HMO example. For second homes and short-term lets there is a Welsh permitted development right to remove. For C3 to C4 HMOs there is not.
Articles 5 and 6 no longer apply in Wales
If you are reading an older copy of the 1995 GPDO, you will still find Article 5 dealing with the procedure for Article 4 directions and Article 6 dealing with directions with immediate effect.
Both Articles were omitted for Wales from 20th October 2022. Their subject matter is now dealt with through Article 4 and Schedule 2A.
For that reason Planning Geek has not created pages pretending Articles 5 and 6 contain current Welsh rules. The Welsh GPDO index marks them as omitted and moves directly to the next operative Article.
Article 4 legislation
The wording below follows the current revised Article 4. Article 4(2) and Article 4(5) were omitted for Wales in 2022, when the procedure was moved into Schedule 2A.
Directions restricting permitted development
4.—(1) If the Welsh Ministers or the appropriate local planning authority are satisfied that it is expedient that development described in any Part, Class or paragraph in Schedule 2, other than Class B of Part 22 or Class B of Part 23, should not be carried out unless permission is granted for it on an application, they may give a direction under this paragraph that the permission granted by article 3 shall not apply to—
(a) all or any development of the Part, Class or paragraph in question in an area specified in the direction; or
(b) any particular development, falling within that Part, Class or paragraph, which is specified in the direction,
and the direction shall specify that it is made under this paragraph.
(2) [omitted in Wales]
(3) A direction under paragraph (1) shall not affect the carrying out of—
(a) development permitted by Part 11 authorised by an Act passed after 1st July 1948 or by an order requiring the approval of both Houses of Parliament approved after that date;
(aa) development permitted by Class B of Part 13;
(aaa) development permitted by Part 24 which consists of the installation, alteration or replacement of a Regulation 2020/1070 small cell system;
(ab) development permitted by Part 37 or Part 38;
(b) any development in an emergency other than development permitted by Part 37; or
(c) any development mentioned in Part 24, unless the direction specifically so provides, but this is subject to paragraph (3A).
(3A) A direction under paragraph (1) may not affect the carrying out of development consisting of the installation, alteration or replacement of a Regulation 2020/1070 small cell system.
(4) A direction given or having effect as if given under this article shall not, unless the direction so provides, affect the carrying out by a statutory undertaker of the following descriptions of development—
(a) the maintenance of bridges, buildings and railway stations;
(b) the alteration and maintenance of railway track, and the provision and maintenance of track equipment, including signal boxes, signalling apparatus and other appliances and works required in connection with the movement of traffic by rail;
(c) the maintenance of docks, harbours, quays, wharves, canals and towing paths;
(d) the provision and maintenance of mechanical apparatus or appliances (including signalling equipment) required for the purposes of shipping or in connection with the embarking, disembarking, loading, discharging or transport of passengers, livestock or goods at a dock, quay, harbour, bank, wharf or basin;
(e) any development required in connection with the improvement, maintenance or repair of watercourses or drainage works;
(f) the maintenance of buildings, runways, taxiways or aprons at an aerodrome;
(g) the provision, alteration and maintenance of equipment, apparatus and works at an aerodrome, required in connection with the movement of traffic by air (other than buildings, the construction, erection, reconstruction or alteration of which is permitted by Class A of Part 18 of Schedule 2).
(5) [omitted in Wales]
(5A) The procedures which must be followed in making, varying or withdrawing any direction made under paragraph (1), are set out in Schedule 2A.
(6) In this article and in Schedule 2A—
“appropriate local planning authority” means—
(a) in relation to a conservation area in a non-metropolitan county in England, the county planning authority or the district planning authority; and
(b) in relation to any other area, the local planning authority whose function it would be to determine an application for planning permission for the development to which the direction relates or is proposed to relate;
“Regulation 2020/1070 small cell system” has the same meaning as in Part 24 of Schedule 2.
View the current revised Article 4 on legislation.gov.uk.
Schedule 2A legislation – Article 4 procedures
Schedule 2A was inserted for Wales from 20th October 2022. It now contains the procedural rules for Article 4 directions.
Procedure for Article 4(1) directions without immediate effect
1.—(1) Unless paragraph 2 applies, notice of any direction made under article 4(1) of this Order must, as soon as practicable after the direction has been made, be given by the local planning authority—
(a) by local advertisement;
(b) by site display for a period of not less than 6 weeks—
(i) at no fewer than 2 locations within the area to which the direction relates, or
(ii) if the direction is made under article 4(1)(b), on the site of the particular development to which the direction relates; and
(c) by serving the notice on the owner and occupier of every part of the land within the area or site to which the direction relates, but this is subject to sub-paragraph (2).
(2) The local planning authority need not serve notice on an owner or occupier in accordance with sub-paragraph (1)(c), if they consider that—
(a) individual service on that owner or occupier is impracticable because it is difficult to identify or locate that person, or
(b) the number of owners or occupiers within the area to which the direction relates makes individual service impracticable, but this is subject to sub-paragraph (3).
(3) Sub-paragraph (2) does not apply where the owner or occupier is a statutory undertaker or the Crown.
(4) The notice referred to in sub-paragraph (1) must—
(a) include a description of the development and the area or site to which it relates,
(b) include a statement of the effect of the direction,
(c) specify that the direction is made under article 4(1),
(d) name a place where a copy of the direction, and a copy of a map defining the area or site to which it relates, may be seen during normal working hours,
(e) specify a period of at least 21 days, stating the date on which that period begins, within which any representations concerning the direction may be made to the local planning authority, and
(f) specify the date on which it is proposed that the direction will take effect, which must be at least 28 days but no longer than 2 years after the date specified under paragraph (e).
(5) Where a notice given by site display is, without any fault or intention of the local planning authority, removed, obscured, or defaced before the end of the period specified under sub-paragraph (4)(e), the authority is treated as having complied with that sub-paragraph if they have taken reasonable steps for the protection of the notice, including, if need be, its replacement.
(6) The local planning authority must send a copy of the direction and the notice under sub-paragraph (1), and a copy of a map defining the area or site to which it relates, to the Welsh Ministers on the same day that notice of the direction is first published or displayed in accordance with sub-paragraph (1).
(7) The direction takes effect on the date specified in accordance with sub-paragraph (4)(f) but only if it is confirmed by the local planning authority in accordance with sub-paragraphs (8) and (9).
(8) In deciding whether to confirm a direction made under article 4(1) the local planning authority must take into account any representations received during the period specified under sub-paragraph (4)(e).
(9) The local planning authority must not confirm a direction until after the later of—
(a) a period of at least 28 days beginning with the latest day any notice relating to the direction was served or published, or
(b) such longer period as may be specified by the Welsh Ministers following the notification of the direction by the local planning authority to the Welsh Ministers.
(10) The local planning authority must, as soon as practicable after a direction has been confirmed—
(a) give notice of confirmation and the date on which the direction takes effect, in accordance with sub-paragraph (11), and
(b) send a copy of the direction as confirmed to the Welsh Ministers.
(11) Notice under sub-paragraph (10)(a) must be given in the manner described in sub-paragraphs (1) and (4)(a) to (c); and sub-paragraphs (2) and (3) apply for this purpose as they apply for the purpose of sub-paragraph (1)(c).
(12) A local planning authority may, by making a subsequent direction, withdraw any direction made by them under article 4(1).
(13) The Welsh Ministers may make a direction withdrawing or varying any direction under article 4(1) made by a local planning authority or by the Welsh Ministers, at any time before or after its confirmation.
(14) Sub-paragraphs (1) to (11) apply in relation to any direction made under sub-paragraph (12) by a local planning authority unless the direction it is withdrawing is a direction to which paragraph 2 applied.
(15) Paragraphs 2(2) and (4) to (7) apply in relation to any direction made by a local planning authority under sub-paragraph (12) withdrawing a direction to which paragraph 2 applied.
(16) The Welsh Ministers must notify the local planning authority as soon as practicable after making a direction under article 4(1) or sub-paragraph (13).
(17) Sub-paragraphs (1) to (3) and (4)(a) to (c) apply to any direction made under sub-paragraph (13) by the Welsh Ministers.
(18) A direction made under sub-paragraph (13) by the Welsh Ministers takes effect—
(a) on the date on which the notice is served under sub-paragraph (1)(c) on the occupier, or if there is no occupier, on the owner; or
(b) if sub-paragraph (2) applies, on the date on which the notice was first advertised or displayed in accordance with sub-paragraph (1).
Procedure for Article 4(1) directions with immediate effect
2.—(1) This paragraph applies where—
(a) a direction relating only to development permitted by any of—
(i) Part 1 (development within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse);
(ii) Part 2 (minor operations);
(iii) Part 3 (changes of use), excluding development permitted by paragraphs (b)(i) and (c)(i) of Class I;
(iv) Part 4 (temporary buildings and uses);
(v) Part 31 (demolition of buildings);
of Schedule 2 has been made by the local planning authority or the Welsh Ministers under article 4(1) and the planning authority consider that the development to which the direction relates would be prejudicial to the proper planning of their area or constitute a threat to the amenities of their area; or
(b) a direction within the whole or part of any conservation area has been made by the local planning authority or the Welsh Ministers under article 4(1) which the planning authority considers should have immediate effect and the development to which the direction relates is described in sub-paragraph (3).
(2) Paragraphs 1(1) to (3), (4)(a) to (e), (5), and (8) and (9) apply in relation to a direction to which this paragraph applies; and the planning authority must notify the Welsh Ministers of the direction on the same day that notice is given under paragraph 1(1).
(3) The development referred to in sub-paragraph (1)(b) is development described in—
(a) Class A of Part 1 of Schedule 2, consisting of the enlargement, improvement or other alteration of a dwellinghouse, where any part of the enlargement, improvement or alteration would front a relevant location;
(b) Class C of Part 1 of that Schedule, where the alteration would be to a roof slope which fronts a relevant location;
(c) Class D of Part 1 of that Schedule, where the external door in question fronts a relevant location;
(d) Class E of Part 1 of that Schedule, where the building or enclosure, raised platform, swimming or other pool to be provided would front a relevant location, or where the part of the building or enclosure maintained, improved or altered would front a relevant location;
(e) Class F of Part 1 of that Schedule, where the hard surface would front a relevant location;
(f) Class H of Part 1 of that Schedule, where the part of the building or other structure on which the antenna is to be installed, altered or replaced fronts a relevant location;
(g) Part 1 of that Schedule, consisting of the installation, alteration or removal of a chimney on a dwellinghouse or on a building within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse;
(h) Class A of Part 2 of that Schedule, where the gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure would be within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse and would front a relevant location;
(i) Class C of Part 2 of that Schedule, consisting of the painting of the exterior of any part, which fronts a relevant location, of—
(i) a dwellinghouse; or
(ii) any building or enclosure within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse;
(j) Class B of Part 31 of that Schedule, where the gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure is within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse and fronts a relevant location.
(4) The direction takes effect—
(a) on the date on which the notice is served under paragraph 1(1)(c) on the occupier of that part of the land or, if there is no occupier, on the owner; or
(b) if paragraph 1(2) applies, on the date on which the notice is first published or displayed in accordance with paragraph 1(1).
(5) A direction to which this paragraph applies expires at the end of 6 months beginning with the day on which it takes effect, unless it is confirmed by the local planning authority in accordance with paragraphs 1(8) and (9), before the end of that period.
(6) The local planning authority must, as soon as practicable after a direction has been confirmed—
(a) give notice of their confirmation; and
(b) send a copy of the direction as confirmed to the Welsh Ministers.
(7) Notice under sub-paragraph (6)(a) must be given in the manner described in paragraphs 1(1) and (4)(a) to (c); and paragraphs 1(2) and (3) apply for this purpose as they apply for the purpose of paragraph 1(1)(c).
(8) In this paragraph, “relevant location” means a highway, waterway or open space.
View Schedule 2A on legislation.gov.uk. Planning Geek also hosts the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development etc.) (Amendment) (Wales) Order 2022, which inserted Schedule 2A and omitted Articles 5 and 6 for Wales.
Welsh GPDO Articles
The Articles are the legal framework for the General Permitted Development Order in Wales. Use the links below to move between the current Articles or return to the Welsh GPDO section.
- Article 6 – omitted in Wales
- Article 7 – Mineral development directions
- Article 8 – Cancelling or varying directions
- Article 9 – Revocations
Legal check: 6th September 2026