Class C2 and C2A: institutions and secure accommodation

A class C2 residential institution is defined by care, not by building type. Class C2 of the Use Classes Order 1987 covers the provision of residential accommodation and care to people in need of care, together with hospitals, nursing homes and residential schools, colleges and training centres. Class C2A covers secure residential accommodation. The line between C2 and C3 decides whether affordable housing policy bites, how the levy is charged and what the highway authority asks for, so it is worth settling with evidence rather than with a label on a drawing.

What Class C2 covers and the care requirement

The Order defines care for these purposes as personal care for people in need of it by reason of old age, disablement, past or present dependence on alcohol or drugs, or past or present mental disorder. Within Class C2 the definition extends to the personal care of children and to medical care and treatment.

Two elements have to be present. Residential accommodation, and care provided to residents who need it. Accommodation alone is C3 or C4 territory. Care delivered to people living in their own separate dwellings is domiciliary care, which does not turn those dwellings into an institution.

The exclusion in the class wording matters as much as the inclusion. Class C2 expressly excludes uses falling within Class C3, and Class C3(b) already allows up to six residents living together as a single household where care is provided. So a small care setting for five or six people can be C3 rather than C2, with different policy consequences, and the single household test does the work.

Residential schools, colleges and training centres

The third limb of C2 is often forgotten. A residential school, college or training centre is C2 whether or not care in the personal sense is provided, because the limb stands on its own.

This creates an awkward interface with Class F1, which covers non-residential education. A sixth form college with a boarding house on the same campus is running two uses, and the planning unit question then decides whether you are dealing with a mixed use or two separate ones. Our note on Class F1 and non-residential institutions sets out the other side of that boundary.

Purpose-built student accommodation sits outside this limb where it is not part of a residential college. Large schemes are commonly treated as sui generis, and some authorities have adopted local definitions. Check the local plan before assuming C2.

Hospitals and nursing homes

A hospital is C2 on the face of the class. So is a nursing home, and the distinction between a nursing home and a residential care home is a regulatory one under health legislation rather than a planning one, because both fall in the same class.

Independent clinics and consulting rooms are a different matter. Non-residential medical and health services moved into Class E(e) in 2020, and the class excludes use attached to the residence of the consultant or practitioner. A day surgery is therefore E(e), an overnight facility is C2, and the shift between them is a material change of use.

Where a hospital site is being redeveloped, the fallback position under the extant C2 use is frequently the strongest card in the applicant's hand. Establish it properly, with floor areas and a planning history, rather than asserting it.

What Class C2A covers

Class C2A is secure residential accommodation, and the class wording lists prisons, young offenders institutions, detention centres, secure training centres, custody centres, short term holding centres, secure hospitals, secure local authority accommodation and military barracks.

The class was added to the Order by a later amendment, and one consequence is that movement between C2 and C2A is a material change of use requiring permission. A secure hospital cannot slide into general hospital use, or the reverse, without an application.

Barracks in the same class as prisons looks odd until you read it as accommodation where residents are not free to come and go on ordinary terms. That is the thread running through the list.

Where supported housing sits between C2 and C3

This is the argument that fills appeal decisions, and there is no bright line. The factors that carry weight are these:

1. Whether residents live as a single household, sharing living space and meals, or occupy self-contained units with their own front doors.
2. The intensity of care, measured in hours per resident per week and in whether staff are present overnight.
3. Whether care is a condition of occupation or an optional service the resident can decline.
4. The number of residents, with six as the ceiling for Class C3(b).
5. Tenure and the form of occupancy agreement, as evidence of whether residents are tenants of a dwelling or residents of an institution.

Extra care and assisted living schemes are the hard cases. A development of 60 self-contained flats with a care team on site, a restaurant and a communal lounge can be argued either way, and the answer depends on the care package rather than the architecture. Appeal decisions on this point are indicative of how inspectors approach it, not binding precedent.

Affordable housing and levy implications by class

Classification is not an academic exercise. It changes the numbers.

Read the adopted local plan policy wording, not a summary of it. Some authorities apply affordable housing requirements to C2 schemes by converting bedspaces to units, and others do not touch C2 at all. The Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 charge against chargeable development by floorspace, so the rate in the charging schedule for the relevant use is what decides the liability.

Evidence on care levels and staffing

If you want the C2 classification accepted, evidence it at validation rather than defending it at committee. The pack that works includes a statement of the care model, indicative staffing rotas showing waking and sleeping cover, the registration position with the health and social care regulator, the care hours per resident, the form of occupancy agreement, and plans identifying communal and staff space as a proportion of the whole.

Set it out in the Planning Statement with the policy consequences drawn out, because the case officer needs to reach the same conclusion you have. Trip generation also differs sharply between C2 and C3, so a Transport Statement using an appropriate land use category avoids a highways objection built on residential trip rates that do not apply.

Conditions restricting the category of occupier

Where the classification carries a policy consequence, expect the council to want it locked down. Conditions restricting the use to Class C2 only, or to a defined category of resident such as people over a stated age with an assessed care need, are commonly imposed and generally held to be reasonable where the permission was granted on that basis.

Read the drafting carefully before you accept it. A condition tying occupation to an assessed care need can make units difficult to let and difficult to fund, and a variation under section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 later is not a formality. The same discipline applies to any prior approval or change of use route, as our notes on change of use within Class E and Class MA prior approval show.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Class boundaries turn on the facts of the individual use, so check the position with the local planning authority or take advice, and consider a certificate of lawful use where the answer carries real money.

Scoping the evidence base for a C2 scheme? Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your site is likely to need. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.