(General Permitted Development etc.) (England) (Amendment) Order 2021, Class MA Part3 Schedule 2
Year 2021 along with many unpleasant changes has also brought modifications to permitted development rules which proved to be a great deal to many of you who own a Use Class E property. Overall the amendments allow for change of Use from Class E to residential.
This in general includes commercial business and services which can now be converted into flats provided certain criteria are met. If you are an owner of a shop, restaurant, café, bank, building society, GP clinic etc than most certainly your property will be illegible for such conversion, provided certain criteria are met, as you might expect. These are listed below.
Criteria for conversion of Use Class E into flats:
Criteria for conversion of Use Class E into flats:
- a prior approval must be obtained from the local planning authority prior to any works on site
- the existing building must be vacant for a period of 3 months prior to the application
- the property must have been in Use Class E for at least 2 years before you can apply
- up to 1,500 sq.m of existing space is allowed to be converted which in theory allows to achieve even about 20x 2 bedroom flats or even more if there is a better mix with smaller units, depending on size of the communal area.
- the noise, contamination, transport and flood risk assessment might be required
- the application must demonstrate that sufficient amount of daylight and good outlook can be achieved and very often a daylight assessment is requested to support the proposal.
- in conservation areas an assessment of impact on the area will be necessary
- if the existing property is located in industrial area an assessment of the impact on the future occupiers will be obligatory
- provision of a fire risk assessment will be required if the conversion is considered a major development
- the existing building cannot be listed or located within area of outstanding natural beauty, world heritage sites, broads or national parks.
Benefits of residential conversion under new Class MA of permitted development order:
there is no requirement for car parking spaces irrelevant of (PTAL) Public Transport Accessibility Level or number of units but it is believed that most of these conversions would benefit from good public transport anyway.
also there is no obligation to provide sufficient amount of amenity space.
Things to remember:
make sure there is no Article 4 Direction on change of use of your existing building. Many of commercial units or offices in various councils have such restrictions which effectively prevent from change of use.
most councils facilitate a special website showing all the planning policies and restriction on site including areas covered by Article 4 Direction.
the existing building must have sufficient number of large enough windows as no new openings are permitted within this application so this factor will determine how many flats can be achieved in reality.
as usual, because the change of use involves creation of new residential units and very often involves structural amendments, it is required to apply for Building Control approval before starting on site.
when deciding on flats layouts it is always worth considering location of the existing services to make construction cost efficient.
always consider distance to the nearest fire escape so that the application is viable and you do not have to apply for amendments afterwards.
keep in mind that you may have to apply for a new relocated entrance or additional windows later under full planning permission so the full design may take longer than anticipated.
As you may expect, Atelier 41 architects have developed a vast network of various consultants including fire risk assessors, daylight and transport consultants as we believe this way we can ascertain the process is run as smoothly as possible. We have recently applied for a conversion of a former Argos building into flats in North Finchley, we can’t wait for a decision notice and we look forward to working on any developments of similar character in the future. Please do not hesitate to contact us with your enquires as until the end of the year we may be able to charge for such work based on success for smaller scale projects.