Permitted Development – Page 5

9 October 2026Read article →

Class Q barn conversion prior approval: the tests that fail

Class Q permits a conversion, not a rebuild. The structural test, the agricultural use evidence, the location judgement and the design points that decide these applications.

9 October 2026Read article →

Class G and Class H: flues, chimneys, antennas and dishes

Class G covers flues and vent pipes, Class H covers antennas. The height limit, the designated land restriction, the number and size limits, and why flats get neither.

Class MA vacancy and continuous use conditions

The two year continuous Class E use condition decides most Class MA applications. The separate vacancy requirement and floorspace cap were removed in 2024.

Class Q structural works and what is reasonably necessary

Class Q permits windows, doors, roofs, walls, services and partial demolition, and nothing that amounts to a rebuild. How the reasonably necessary test is applied and what the engineer must show.

Class Q: proving the building was in agricultural use

Class Q prior approvals fail on the agricultural use test more often than on structure. Here is what the qualifying date requires, which uses do not count, and what evidence councils accept.

Front garden paving, permeable surfaces and Class F

A front garden hard surface over 5 square metres must be porous or drain to a permeable area within your own curtilage. Here is how Class F works, and why the dropped kerb is a separate consent.

The 50 per cent curtilage rule for garden outbuildings

Class E limits buildings, enclosures and containers in a garden to half the curtilage once the original house is deducted. Extensions count. Driveways do not. Here is how to do the sum.

Garden offices and the separate planning unit problem

The size limits are easy to check. The real risk is that a lawful garden building gradually becomes a separate planning unit, and nobody notices until the house is being sold.

Roof extensions and the elevation fronting a highway

A front dormer is caught only where the roof slope both forms the principal elevation and fronts a highway. Both limbs have to be met, and on corner plots and footpath frontages the answer is often not the obvious one.

Measuring the volume allowance for a loft dormer

Class B allows 40 cubic metres of added roof space on a terrace house and 50 on anything else, measured outside the structure. Earlier roof additions count, including ones a previous owner built.

Householder permitted development in a conservation area

In a conservation area householder permitted development shrinks rather than disappears. Here is exactly what article 2(3) land removes, what survives, and how an Article 4 direction goes further.

The eaves height rule within two metres of a boundary

Three metres of eaves height is tight once you allow for a floor build-up and a pitched roof. Here is where the two metres is measured from, how sloping ground is treated, and how to design with a margin.

What original dwellinghouse means for permitted development

Permitted development limits are measured from the house as it was on 1 July 1948, or as built if later. Work done by owners before you bought still uses up the allowance, and nothing resets it short of rebuilding.

3 October 2026Read article →

Mineral exploration and Part 17 permitted development

Exploring for minerals on your own land can be permitted development under Part 17 of the GPDO, but only within duration limits, with notification to the mineral planning authority and with restoration built in.

Painting and external alterations under Part 2

Repainting a shop needs nothing. Painting it in house colours so the brand is recognised is arguable, and an Article 4 direction changes the position entirely.

Prior approval applications and EIA screening

A prior approval granted for unscreened Schedule 2 development may be worth nothing. The restriction in article 3, sensitive areas, and how to sequence the two.

Development contrary to a condition and article 3(4)

A condition on a decades-old permission can defeat a Class A extension today. What article 3(4) excludes, how the courts read use conditions, and the routes back.

Enforcement time limits for permitted development breaches

Immunity runs from the date of the breach, not the date of the complaint. What starts the clock for building work and changes of use, and how to prove the period.

Measuring height under Part 1 from adjacent ground

One datum governs the height limits in Part 1: the highest adjacent ground. Here is how it works on slopes, what reprofiling does, and what to show on the section.

Article 4 directions: how a council makes and confirms one

Article 4 directions come in immediate and non-immediate form. Here is the Schedule 3 procedure, the compensation position under section 108, and how to check the status of one.

Industrial plant, machinery and hardstanding under Part 7

Part 7 allows plant, machinery and hard surfaces within the curtilage of an industrial building within limits on height and position. Conditions on the existing permission, designated land and open storage are where operators come unstuck.

1 October 2026Read article →

Changing between class C3 and class C4 without an application

Class L of Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO 2015 permits change between a dwellinghouse and a small HMO in both directions. Article 4 directions remove it, usually in one direction only, and seven sharers falls outside both classes.