Advertisement consent and the deemed consent classes

Advertisement control is a separate consent regime from planning permission. A sign is not assessed against local plan policy in the way a building is, and the authority may only consider two things: amenity and public safety. The rules sit in the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007, and most signs on a shop front are displayed under deemed consent without any application at all.

That is the part businesses get wrong in both directions. Some apply for consent they do not need. Others display a sign that falls outside the deemed classes and find out when the enforcement letter arrives.

How advertisement control differs from planning permission

The Regulations are made under the advertisement provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and they create a parallel system. Three differences matter in practice.

The considerations are limited. An authority deciding an advertisement application may only have regard to amenity and public safety. Amenity covers the general characteristics of the locality, including features of historic, architectural, cultural or similar interest. Public safety covers the safety of road, rail, waterway and air traffic, which is why highway officers comment on illuminated signs near junctions.

Consent carries planning permission with it. Where express consent is granted for an advertisement, planning permission is deemed to be granted for any development involved in the display, so a separate application for the fixings is not needed.

And consent is time limited. Express consent is normally granted for five years unless the decision says otherwise, after which the display is unauthorised unless renewed. Diarise the expiry, because nobody is reminded.

Advertisement consent does not substitute for other consents. Fixing a sign to a listed building needs listed building consent, and a sign on the highway or oversailing it may need a licence from the highway authority.

The deemed consent classes

Schedule 3 to the Regulations lists classes of advertisement that may be displayed without an application, each subject to its own limits on size, height, number and illumination. The classes that matter to most businesses:

• Advertisements relating to the premises on which they are displayed, covering identification, direction and warning signs, and a professional or business plate.
• Temporary advertisements, including a board advertising the sale or letting of land or buildings, a notice about building works in progress, and a sign announcing a local event of a religious, educational, cultural, political, social or recreational character.
• Illuminated advertisements on business premises, with limits on the height above ground, the projection from the wall and the illuminance.
• Other advertisements on business premises, which is the class most fascia and hanging signs rely on.
• Advertisements on business forecourts.
• Flags, with limits on the number, the position and what the flag may show.
• Advertisements on hoardings enclosing a construction site.
• Advertisements inside a building, where they are not readily visible from outside.
• Sites that have been used continuously for the display of advertisements for a long period.

The limits are specific and they are the whole point. A fascia sign within the class limits needs no application. The same sign 300 mm higher, or illuminated where the class does not allow illumination, or projecting further than the class permits, needs express consent. Read the class rather than relying on what the neighbouring shop has done, since the neighbour may be unauthorised.

Standard conditions that apply to every advertisement

Schedule 2 imposes conditions on all displays, whether under deemed or express consent, and they are enforceable in their own right.

1. The advertisement and any structure must be kept clean and tidy.
2. The structure must be kept in a safe condition.
3. The permission of the owner of the land, or anyone else entitled to grant it, must be obtained.
4. The advertisement must not be sited or displayed so as to obscure or hinder the interpretation of an official road traffic sign, railway signal or aid to navigation by water or air, or otherwise make hazardous the use of those routes.
5. Where the advertisement is required to be removed, that must be done without damaging the fabric of the building and the site left in a condition that does not endanger the public.

The fourth condition is the one that catches illuminated signage near traffic signals, and a highway authority objection on that basis is difficult to answer with design alone. Where a consultee raises it, the approach is the same as for any holding objection, as clearing a statutory consultee holding objection sets out.

Express consent and what it requires

Where a display falls outside the deemed classes, an application for express consent goes to the local planning authority with a fee set by the national fee regulations, which are indexed, so check the current figure. How the fee schedule is applied and indexed covers the mechanics.

The submission is short but it has to be precise. The drawings need an elevation showing the sign in context at a stated scale, a detail of the sign itself with dimensions, the method and position of fixing, the materials and finishes, and for an illuminated sign the type of illumination, the luminance in candelas per square metre, whether it is internal or external, and the hours of illumination.

A short supporting statement helps on anything other than a simple fascia. Describe the character of the locality, identify how the sign responds to the building and the street, and address public safety directly where the sign is near a junction, a crossing or a signal. On a scheme where the signage forms part of a wider application, the same reasoning can sit within the Planning Statement rather than in a separate document.

Expect conditions on the hours and level of illumination, on the removal of the sign if the use ceases, and on maintenance.

Illumination, amenity and public safety

Illumination is where most advertisement refusals arise, and the two statutory considerations pull in different directions.

On amenity, the questions are the luminance against the character of the area, whether the sign is internally illuminated with an acrylic face or has individually illuminated letters with a halo effect, and whether it reads as part of the building or as applied signage. In a street of nineteenth century shopfronts, individually lit letters on a painted timber fascia will be accepted where an internally illuminated box will not.

On public safety, the questions are distraction, glare and confusion with signals. Digital and changing displays attract particular attention because movement and brightness changes are more distracting than static signs. Expect limits on dwell time, on transitions, and on peak luminance with a dimming regime for hours of darkness.

Luminance limits are published in professional lighting guidance for different zones, with rural and residential zones far more restrictive than a commercial centre. Quote the zone and the limit in the application rather than leaving the officer to look it up.

Conservation areas and areas of special control

Two regimes tighten the rules geographically.

In a conservation area, and on and around listed buildings, several deemed consent classes are restricted, and illumination that would otherwise be permitted frequently needs express consent. The amenity test also carries the duty to pay special attention to preserving or enhancing the character and appearance of the area, which raises the bar on fascia design, lettering, projecting signs and lighting.

Areas of special control, which authorities designate mainly in rural areas, go further. They restrict the size and height of advertisements, limit which deemed classes apply, and generally prohibit poster hoardings and free-standing advertisement structures. Check whether a site falls within one before designing the signage, because the restrictions are substantial and they are not obvious from the street.

Authorities also have power, with the approval of the Secretary of State, to make a direction removing deemed consent for a particular class in a defined area, and power to serve a discontinuance notice requiring the removal of a display made under deemed consent where it causes substantial injury to amenity or danger.

Enforcement against an unauthorised sign

Displaying an advertisement without consent is a criminal offence, prosecuted in the magistrates court, with a fine that can continue for each day the display persists. That is a sharper remedy than ordinary planning enforcement, and it is used.

Authorities also have powers to remove placards and posters, and to recover the expenses of removal. For fly-posting the remedies are quicker still.

If a letter arrives, the practical sequence is to establish whether the display actually falls within a deemed class, which it quite often does, and to say so with the dimensions. If it does not, decide between removing the sign, modifying it to fit a class, or applying for express consent, and tell the authority which you are doing with a date. Enforcement officers deal reasonably with a business that answers promptly and specifically.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your site is likely to need.