Betting shops, loan shops and the 2015 use class change

Turning a shop into a betting office needs planning permission, and it has done since April 2015. That is the short answer, and it surprises people who remember when a betting shop could open in a former estate agency without asking anyone. The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2015 pulled betting offices and pay day loan shops out of the old Class A2 and made them sui generis, meaning they belong to no class at all. Five years later the 2020 reform swept most high street uses into Class E and left these two exactly where the 2015 order had put them.

What the 2015 order actually did

Before 15 April 2015, a betting office was a Class A2 use, sitting alongside banks, building societies, estate agents and employment agencies. Anything in A2 could become anything else in A2 without a planning application, because movement within a use class is not development. A branch that closed could reopen as a betting shop and the council had no say.

The 2015 order removed both betting offices and pay day loan shops from A2 and left them classless. The government's stated purpose was to give local authorities control over where these uses opened, particularly where several were clustering in the same parade. At the same time, permitted development rights were introduced in the opposite direction, so that an existing betting office or loan shop could move back into ordinary retail or professional services without an application.

That asymmetry is the whole design. Getting out is easy. Getting in requires a decision.

Where the uses sit after Class E

The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 revoked Classes A1, A2, A3 and B1 from 1 September 2020 and replaced them with Class E, a broad commercial, business and service class covering shops, financial and professional services, cafes and restaurants, indoor sport, medical uses, creches, offices, research and light industry. Movement within Class E is still free.

Betting offices and pay day loan shops were not swept in. Neither were hot food takeaways, pubs, drinking establishments, live music venues, cinemas, theatres, bingo halls or casinos. They all remain sui generis, and a change from Class E to any of them is a material change of use.

Part 3 of the General Permitted Development Order still allows a betting office to move into Class E use without an application, so a unit that has operated as a betting shop can revert to a shop, a cafe or an office. Check the current text of Part 3 before relying on it, because the classes it refers to were renumbered after 2020.

Applying for the change of use today

The application is a full application for change of use, not a householder or prior approval route. It needs a site location plan, existing and proposed floor plans, a shopfront elevation if the frontage is altered, and a Planning Statement that addresses the development plan policies on retail frontage, town centre vitality and amenity.

Establish the lawful use first. If the unit has been vacant for years, the last lawful use may not be what the letting agent says it is, and the assessment starts from what is lawful rather than what was last advertised. Where a unit has been subdivided or amalgamated, the planning unit may not match the shop front you are looking at.

Expect the application to be determined within eight weeks as a minor application, and expect neighbour notification and a site notice. These proposals attract objections, so the case should be made properly in the statement rather than left for the officer to construct.

Frontage and clustering policies

Most town centre policies work by counting. A primary shopping frontage policy might resist a non-retail use where it would take the proportion of non-retail units above a stated percentage, or where it would create three or more adjoining non-retail units. The figures vary by authority and by centre, and they are set out in the adopted local plan rather than in national policy.

Do the count yourself before applying. Walk the frontage defined on the policies map, record the lawful use of each unit rather than the trading name on the fascia, and present the result as a table. An officer who has to do that survey themselves will do it in the way that supports refusal.

Vacancy is the other half of the argument. Where a unit has been empty for a long period and has been marketed without success, that marketing evidence carries weight against a policy designed to protect active retail frontage.

Health, wellbeing and the limits of what can be weighed

National policy asks planning to support healthy and safe communities, and many authorities have adopted policies restricting gambling premises within a stated distance of schools, colleges or premises used by vulnerable groups. Where such a policy exists, it is a material consideration and the application should address it directly.

Where no such policy exists, the position is harder for the authority. General concern about gambling is not by itself a planning objection, and an inspector will look for a policy hook and evidence rather than sentiment. The honest position for an applicant is that the outcome depends heavily on which authority you are in.

Licensing runs on a separate track

A betting office also needs a premises licence under the Gambling Act 2005 from the licensing authority, and an operating licence and personal licences from the Gambling Commission. The two regimes do not speak to each other. Licensing authorities are told to aim to permit gambling in line with the licensing objectives and the authority's own statement of licensing policy, and they are not to treat planning permission as a licensing matter.

The practical consequence is a sequencing decision. A premises licence granted for a unit that has no planning permission for the use is worth very little, and planning enforcement is unaffected by the existence of a licence. Applying for planning permission first is usually the safer order.

The evidence a council expects

A submission that anticipates the objections tends to be short and specific:

1. A frontage survey table showing lawful uses across the policy frontage, with the resulting percentage.
2. Marketing evidence for the unit, with dates, asking terms and any offers received.
3. Proposed opening hours, with a note on how they compare with the neighbouring units.
4. A shopfront and signage proposal, especially in a conservation area, where window treatments and internal illumination are usually the sticking point.
5. Servicing and waste arrangements, and details of any external plant.
6. A statement on proximity to schools or other sensitive premises where local policy requires it.

Where the scheme also involves the floors above, the residential element brings its own requirements, and converting space above a shop follows a different route with its own standards.

Browse all 66 PlanScope report types and start a draft if you want to see which supporting documents a change of use of this kind normally needs.

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.