Back in 2013, the Government implemented Permitted Development rights granting developers an easier path to transitioning a property from commercial to residential use.
The change was borne from the need to revitalise some urban centres and address local, chronic housing shortages.
The amendments, including changes of use from commercial use to residential (C3) class
came into effect from May 2013 for an initial three-year period focussed on:
These rights only cover change of use – any associated physical development that requires a planning application continues to need one.
Following a number of revisions since then, new Regulations came into force on the 1st September 2020 changing the Use Classes system in England (Use Class Order 1987) through the new Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020.
The decline of the high street has been a major driving factor behind the changes which has seen the need to repurpose buildings in city and town centres.
Separately, the Government unveiled major changes to the permitted development regime.
Out of the three new use classes (E, F1 and F2), the most significant change is the creation of a new “Commercial, Business and Service” use called “Class E”.
This new use combines a wide variety of uses which are now considered to be in the same use class:
As planning permission is no longer to change use within the same use class, many types of business user can change the use of a property without the need for planning permission.
For example, an office could become a shop and then a gym without the need to go before a planning committee.
The residential (C classes), general industrial (B2) and storage and distribution (B8) use classes remain unchanged, except for a new cross-reference in the B2 class to the new Class E.
Some community uses have been bracketed together in the new Class F1 and Class F2.
Class F1 covers learning and non-residential institutions where there is a wider public use such as school, libraries and art galleries.
Class F2 incorporates local community facilities where classes groups together such as community halls and meeting spaces, uses which provide for physical group activities such as swimming pools, skating rinks and areas for outdoor sports and a small, local shop like one you would find in a rural community.
The final, significant change is a new, full list of sui generis uses.
These premises generally cannot be changed to any other use without planning permission and the list includes:
In order to change the uses within a class, the property/building must be being used for the initial use before it can change to another within the same class.
So, if the building isn’t being used for the declared use, it will have to be brought into active use before the change is permitted.
At the same time as approving the change to use regulations, the Government implemented a separate series of changes to permitted development rights which came into effect on 31st August 2020 and involves:
These rights are also extended to the creation of new homes above terraces, offices and shops, all without planning permission.
Both rights will require that prior approval is sought from the local authority BEFORE work begins on the redevelopment.
This approval will take into consideration traffic and highway issues, air traffic and defence asset impacts, contamination risks, flood risk, the external appearance of the building, the provision of adequate natural light in all habitable rooms of the new dwellings, impact on amenity of the existing building and neighbouring premises including overlooking, privacy and loss of light, and the impact on any protected views.
A key point to note is that the upward extension rights will only apply to existing residential dwellings or purpose-built, detached blocks of flats. Mixed-use buildings will not benefit from these new rights.
The new guidance on the demolition of redevelopment office and light industrial buildings with residential property provides another avenue to enable creative forms of residential development in order to provide much-needed housing.
Brought together, the changes are already unlocking uses which were previously impractical in specific areas.
Some local authorities had policies in place which sought to protect specific uses in town centres, or office spaces within designated areas.
These restrictions would no longer have effect against changes of use within Use Class E.
The changes have also had, and continue to have, an impact on valuations.
A seller who had already secured a desirable change of use, may now find that the permission is unnecessary which wouldn’t add to the value of the property in question.
Equally, we are likely to see a levelling-out of valuation for properties within the new use class, given the interchangeability of uses.
The Government’s current White Paper incorporates the possibility of even more significant changes to the entire planning system over the coming months, including the potential implementation of a consolidated infrastructure levy, and it may well be that further permitted development reforms follow on over time.
For more information about the change in use legislation click here
