Change of use and the use classes order
Policy Explained
When changing how a building is used quietly needs planning permission — and when the Use Classes Order lets you do it for free.
Get a change of use wrong and the bill is rarely just the planning fee. I have seen a thriving business served with an enforcement notice, a developer’s conversion refused after the drawings were already paid for, and an owner discover at the point of sale that their property’s lawful use was not what they thought. The Use Classes Order decides a great deal of this — and most of the costly surprises come from one misunderstanding: assuming that because the building looks the same, its planning use has not changed.
This guide explains what the Use Classes Order is, what the current classes are, when a change of use actually needs permission, the routes that let you change use without a full application, what each route costs in 2026, and how to confirm your lawful use before it becomes a problem. It applies to England only.
What the Use Classes Order actually is
Planning control does not just bite on building work. Under TCPA 1990, s.55, “development” includes a material change in the use of land or buildings, and s.57 says development needs planning permission. The Use Classes Order is the tool that decides which changes of use count and which do not. It groups uses into named classes, and the basic rule is simple: a change from one use to another within the same class is not development at all, so it needs no permission. A change to a different class may be development — and a change to a use that sits in no class almost always is.
The current framework is the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987, but it was substantially amended on 1 September 2020. That reform swept away the old retail, services, food and office classes and replaced them with a single broad Class E. It is the most significant change to use classes in a generation, and it is the reason so much advice written before 2020 is now wrong.
The current use classes at a glance
England’s use classes now run: Class E (commercial, business and service — shops, offices, cafés, gyms, clinics, crèches and more); C1 hotels; C2 residential institutions; C2A secure residential; C3 dwellinghouses; C4 small houses in multiple occupation; B2 general industrial; B8 storage and distribution; F1 learning and non-residential institutions; and F2 local community uses. Anything that sits in no class — pubs, hot-food takeaways, cinemas, live music venues, nightclubs, betting shops — is sui generis, and a change to or from those uses normally needs permission.
What the 2020 reform actually did — and was it good policy?
The reform merged shops, professional services, restaurants and cafés, offices, gyms and health uses into Class E so that businesses could move between them without an application. The case for it is real: the old categories described a 1980s high street and assumed clean lines between retail, services, food and workspace — lines that modern businesses ignore. It cut planning friction on changes that raised little genuine concern and made it quicker to fill empty units.
The criticism is just as real. Councils lost a lever they used to manage town-centre balance and retail frontage; a parade can now drift towards offices, clinics and gyms with no application ever submitted. From a casework point of view, the most interesting effect is that the reform shifted the disputes rather than removing them. The argument used to be “do I need permission to change use?” Now it is “am I really still within Class E?” My own shorthand for it: Class E solved a lot of paperwork problems, but it didn’t solve judgement problems.
When a change of use needs permission — the “material” test
There is no single statutory threshold for a material change of use. Officers apply a fact-and-degree judgement: has the character of the use changed enough that planning permission is required? In practice that judgement leans on a handful of recurring factors, and roughly in this order of importance.
The factors that decide it
- Traffic and vehicle movements — often the strongest single indicator. A use that once generated a handful of daily visits can come to generate continuous arrivals, delivery vans and courier collections. A small office can become materially different once it operates like a dispatch hub.
- Hours of operation — the same shop trading to midnight is not the same neighbour as one trading nine to five. Late activity brings noise, disturbance and movements at sensitive times.
- Noise, smell and disturbance — the factor that decides most food cases. A sandwich shop and a hot-food operation both sell food, but extraction, odour, drivers and waste create impacts that were not there before.
- Intensity of occupation — is this the same use, just busier, or has it become something else? At some point intensity alters the planning character.
- The planning unit — the whole building, one floor, one unit, or a house and its curtilage? If activity spreads into space that served another function, the planning unit may effectively have changed.
A useful sense-check officers apply: if someone came back after five years, would they regard this as the same use? If the honest answer is “not really”, that points towards a material change.
Where people most often get it wrong
Homeowners assume that working from home means they can run a business from home — usually fine for laptop work and the occasional client, far less safe once there are frequent customers, deliveries, staff and parking impacts. Short-term letting trips people up too: “it’s still people sleeping there” does not always hold, because a permanent home and a unit in continual short-stay use are not the same in planning terms. And annexes or converted garages are assumed to stay incidental to the house until a kitchen, separate access and separate occupation turn them into an independent dwelling.
Small landlords have their own classic errors: HMO thresholds (how many occupants, how many households, is there an Article 4 direction?); the assumption that “it’s an office, so I can convert it”; and, most common of all, “it’s still Class E” — focusing on the class and ignoring the impacts.
The thread running through all of it: most enforcement investigations are not triggered by the use-class schedule. They are triggered because someone notices a real-world change — more vehicles, more people, more noise, longer hours — and the officer then works backwards to decide whether those changes amount to a material change of use. The strongest evidence is rarely a legal argument about classes; it is evidence that the site’s planning impacts are substantially different from before.
Changes you can make without applying
Two routes let you change use without a full planning application. The first is the within-class freedom already described: anything to anything inside Class E, with no application at all. The second is permitted development under Part 3 of the GPDO 2015, which grants the change in principle but usually requires prior approval — the council still checks specified matters such as flooding, highways, contamination and, for residential conversions, natural light.
The headline route is Class MA, which allows commercial premises in Class E to become homes (C3). The building must have been in Class E use for at least two years, the council has 56 days to decide, and an approval must be implemented within three years. The old 1,500 m² floorspace cap and three-month vacancy requirement were removed in March 2024, widening the route considerably. Other Part 3 routes include Class G (Class E to mixed use with up to two flats), Class M (betting shops, takeaways and similar to homes), and Class Q (agricultural buildings to homes) — the subject of our barn conversions and Class Q guide.
Class MA — does it survive, and what should an owner do now?
If I were advising the owner of a Class E building in 2026, I would treat Class MA as still usable law, but not a permanent entitlement. There is usually a gap between political criticism of a permitted development right and any actual change to the regulations, and until the rules change, councils must assess applications against the law as it stands. Even if Class MA were tightened, most observers would expect a replacement route rather than a clean return to the old position — the debate is about scope and safeguards, not the principle of conversion.
So my advice is not “convert immediately”. It is: verify the Class E history now (eligibility, not design, is where most schemes stumble); test natural light before spending heavily; consider whether a full application would actually deliver more; and think about value, not just permission — in some markets residential wins comfortably, in others refurbished commercial or mixed use outperforms. The biggest mistake I see is treating Class MA as a strategic plan rather than a tactical opportunity: “I’ll convert later if I want” assumes the right is still there, the building still qualifies and the market still works.
What it costs and which application you need
The right application — and the fee — depends on the route. A full change-of-use application (a different class, with no PD route) is £610 from 1 April 2026; where the change creates homes, it is £610 for each new dwelling on schemes of fewer than ten. A Class MA prior approval is £260 per home. Class M, N and Q prior approvals are £249, rising to £536 where building operations are involved. A lawful development certificate for a proposed use costs half the full application fee. These are the council’s fees only; drawings, surveys and professional advice are on top.
The cheapest route is not always the best one. A prior approval is quicker and lighter, but it cannot deliver external alterations or extra floorspace, and it is assessed against a narrow list of matters. Where a building can support larger, better units through a full application, that is often the stronger long-term outcome even though it costs more upfront.
Confirming your lawful use — and why it matters at sale
If your use is lawful, it is worth being able to prove it. A lawful development certificate (LDC) does exactly that: an LDC for an existing use confirms what is already lawful, and an LDC for a proposed use confirms in advance that no permission is needed. Buyers’ solicitors and lenders increasingly ask for one, which is why owners often obtain a certificate before marketing a property even when they are confident the use is lawful.
The risk of getting it wrong has grown. Since the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 came into force, the time limit for enforcement against an unlawful change of use is ten years — after which the use can become immune and an LDC for the existing use will confirm it. Until then, the council can require the unlawful use to stop, as the takeaway operator above discovered. If you suspect a previous change was never authorised, our guide on what happens if you build without planning permission explains the enforcement position in more detail.
How this advice is generated
Statutory facts — use classes, the definition of development, permitted development routes and fees — are cited to primary legislation and the current Planning Portal fee schedule. Practical ranges and the “from practice” cases are drawn from the author’s own work at local planning authorities and in consultancy; they are genuine, dated matters with identifying details altered for confidentiality, not invented composites. The article was drafted with AI assistance and then reviewed and fact-checked by an MRTPI chartered town planner.
Data sources
- Homes created by change of use, and the office-to-residential subcomponent: MHCLG, Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England (annual releases, 2016-17 to 2023-24).
- Permitted-development prior-approval volumes and grant rates: MHCLG, Planning applications in England: July to September 2025.
- Application fees: Planning Portal, Fees for planning applications (England), in force 1 April 2026.
- Legislation: Town and Country Planning Act 1990; Use Classes Order 1987 (as amended 2020); GPDO 2015; Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.
Limitations of this guidance
- England only; the regimes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. Subject to legislative change — permitted development rights in particular are kept under review. Local variation applies, including Article 4 directions. This is general guidance, not advice on a specific property, and no outcome is guaranteed.
FAQs
Do I need planning permission to change the use of a commercial property?
It depends on what you are changing from and to. Many commercial uses now sit inside a single Use Class E — shops, offices, cafés, gyms, clinics and more — and moving between them is not development, so no permission is needed. You only need permission where the change is to a different class, to a sui generis use such as a pub or hot-food takeaway, or where the change is "material" because the character of the use has changed. Even within Class E, a dramatic change in traffic, hours, noise or intensity can amount to a material change. If you are unsure, a lawful development certificate can confirm the position in writing. You can get a quick read on your situation with the free planning assessment at planwiser.uk/take-the-assessment.
What is Use Class E and what does it cover?
Use Class E (Commercial, Business and Service) was introduced on 1 September 2020 and is the broadest class in England. It covers shops and retail, financial and professional services, cafés and restaurants, offices, light industrial processes suitable in a residential area, indoor sport and gyms, medical and health services, crèches and day nurseries. Because all of these sit in one class, you can usually move between them without planning permission — a shop can become a gym, or an office a clinic, with no application. What Class E does not include is just as important: pubs and drinking establishments, hot-food takeaways, cinemas, live music venues and nightclubs are all sui generis, meaning they sit in no class and a change to or from them normally needs permission.
Can I change a shop into a café or restaurant without planning permission?
Usually yes. A shop and a café or restaurant are both within Use Class E, so switching between them is not development and does not need planning permission. That is a real change from the position before September 2020, when a shop-to-café change often required an application. There are important exceptions. A hot-food takeaway — where the primary business is selling hot food to take away — is sui generis, not Class E, so turning a shop or café into a takeaway does need permission. An Article 4 direction can also remove the freedom to change use in a particular area. And if the new use brings extraction, late hours, deliveries and odour that the shop never produced, the council may treat it as a material change even within the same class. If in doubt, take the free planning assessment at planwiser.uk/take-the-assessment.
How much does a change of use application cost in 2026?
For a full planning application for a change of use that is not creating dwellings, the fee in England is £610 from 1 April 2026. Where the change creates one or more homes, the fee is also £610 for each new dwelling (for schemes of fewer than ten). If a permitted development route applies, prior approval is cheaper: a Class MA application to convert commercial (Class E) premises to residential is £260 per home, and Class M, N and Q prior approvals are £249 (or £536 where building operations are involved). A lawful development certificate for a proposed use costs half the full application fee. These are the fees a council charges; professional fees, drawings and surveys are on top.
What is a material change of use?
A material change of use is a change in how land or a building is used that is significant enough, in planning terms, to count as development and so to need planning permission. The test is one of fact and degree: there is no fixed statutory threshold. An officer looks at whether the character of the use has changed — not just the label. The factors that matter most in practice are traffic and vehicle movements, hours of operation, noise, smell and disturbance, the intensity of activity, and what the relevant planning unit is. A use can stay within the same use class and still become a material change if, for example, an office quietly turns into something operating like a distribution hub. Intensification on its own is not automatically development, but it can tip into a material change where the increase is substantial enough to alter the planning character of the site.
The Use Classes Order rewards people who look past the label on the door and ask the real question: has the character of this use changed? Get that right — and confirm it in writing where it matters — and most of the expensive surprises simply never happen.
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Book the sessionHow this guide was researched
All statutory facts are cited to primary legislation and the current Planning Portal fee schedule. Practical ranges draw on practice experience and official statistics. England only. Subject to change. Updated June 2026.
Sources
- Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 — legislation.gov.uk
- Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s.55 — legislation.gov.uk
- GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 3 (changes of use) — legislation.gov.uk
- Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, s.115 — legislation.gov.uk
- Fees for planning applications (England), 1 April 2026 — Planning Portal
