Whether a change of use needs planning permission depends on two things: which use class each use sits in, and whether a permitted development route connects them. Since the 2020 shake-up created the broad commercial Class E, the answers surprise people in both directions. Pick your combination and check.
Check your change of use
The checker needs JavaScript. The classes are listed on the Planning Portal.
The classes in one minute
- Class E — shops, cafés and restaurants, offices, gyms, surgeries, nurseries, light industrial. Movement within E is not development at all.
- Class C — C1 hotels; C2 care homes and hospitals; C3 dwellings; C4 small HMOs (3–6 sharers).
- Class F — F1 schools, libraries, places of worship; F2 community halls, essential local shops, outdoor sport.
- B2 / B8 — general industry; storage and distribution.
- Sui generis — pubs, takeaways, nightclubs, theatres, petrol stations and similar: every change into these needs permission.
The routes people search for most
- Shop or office to home (E → C3): the Class MA prior-approval route — £260 per dwelling, assessed on flooding, noise, contamination, transport and natural light (councils can refuse habitable rooms without adequate daylight, which is where a daylight report earns its keep).
- House to small HMO (C3 → C4): permitted development under Class L — unless an Article 4 direction applies, which is common in student areas.
- Anything to a pub, takeaway or nightclub: full application, always.
Honest limits
This is the headline map for England, not the statute: PD routes carry floorspace and site conditions, Article 4 directions remove rights locally, and listed buildings play by their own rules. Where the stakes are high, a lawful development certificate (half the full fee — see the fee calculator) settles the position formally.
How Fortress Associates can help
Conversions to residential trigger exactly the reports we automate free: flood risk (a Class MA prior-approval matter), air quality, energy and sustainability statements — plus the daylight assessments that decide marginal MA schemes. Start with the checklist generator or talk to us.
Sources & further reading
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