New Permitted Development Order – come into effect April 2015

A new General Permitted Development Order (GPDO) comes into effect next week, 15 April 2015.  The UCO (Use Classes Order, 1987) provides classes of land usage, and normally, change of use between these classes is not permitted.  But the GPDO provides exceptions.

The original GPDO came into effect in 1995.  The new GPDO, Statutory Instrument 2015 No 596, replaces this on 15 April 2015.  In some respects this is helpful, as the original GPDO has been subject to continual amendment (22 times in fact!).  But the new GPDO also drives huge holes through the UCO.

‘A’ Use Classes cover retail (shops), financial & professional services, cafes & restaurants, pubs and take-aways.  Until now. change of use between these classes required permission – now, virtually anything can be converted to anything else, without permission (the one exception is conversion to a pub).

‘C’ classes include dwellinghouses and small HMOs – these can still be converted either way.

Most of the other permitted development (PD) allows pretty well anything to be converted to a dwellinghouse – shops, offices, storage, agricultural buildings.

Under Article 4 of the GPDO, local authorities can revoke specified PD rights in designated areas.  Many have done so, requiring landlords to seek permission to convert a dwellinghouse to a HMO.  Article 4 Directions can be used to remove other PD rights.

You can find a link to the new GPDO at https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/planning-update-march-2015  under ‘Change of use’.  Or go to http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/596/pdfs/uksi_20150596_en.pdf