Class F1 and F2: learning and local community uses

Class F1 and F2 are the two use classes most people forget exist, and the omission causes real problems. A village shop, a church hall, a school and a swimming pool all sit outside Class E, which means none of them enjoys the free movement that makes Class E so flexible. Moving a small shop out of F2 into an office, or a church hall into a gym, needs planning permission every time.

The F classes were created on 1 September 2020 when the Use Classes Order was rewritten in England. They collect the uses that Parliament decided should stay protected rather than being folded into the general commercial class.

What the F classes replaced

The old system had Class A1 shops, A2 professional services, A3 restaurants, A4 pubs, A5 takeaways, B1 business, D1 non-residential institutions and D2 assembly and leisure. The 2020 amendment broke all of that apart.

Most of D1 went into F1. Most of A1, A2, A3 and B1, plus indoor sport, medical uses and creches, went into the new Class E. The remainder of D2, including cinemas, concert halls, bingo halls, dance halls and live music venues, was pushed into sui generis along with pubs and hot food takeaways. What was left, the village shop, the community hall and outdoor sport, became F2.

The split inside the old D1 catches people out most often. A doctor's surgery, a dentist, a health centre, a creche and a day nursery are now Class E. A school, a museum, a library and a place of worship are F1. Two buildings that were interchangeable in 2019 are now in different classes.

Inside Class F1

Class F1 covers learning and non-residential institutions, and no residential use falls within it. The class lists the provision of education, the display of works of art other than for sale or hire, use as a museum, use as a public library or public reading room, use as a public hall or exhibition hall, use for or in connection with public worship or religious instruction, and use as a law court.

Because those are all within one class, movement between them is not development and needs no permission. A redundant public hall can become a place of worship. A library can become a museum. A former law court can be used for education.

Two practical cautions apply. Physical works usually still need permission or listed building consent, and the internal alterations needed to convert a hall into a school are rarely trivial. And a change that alters the intensity of use so much that its planning effects are different in kind can still amount to a material change, though within a single class that argument is hard to run.

The phrase "in connection with" public worship is broader than it looks, covering ancillary church activities carried on in the same building, though a hall used mainly for commercial hire has drifted into something else.

Inside Class F2 and the village shop test

Class F2 covers local community uses, and it contains four things.

The village shop provision in F2(a) is the one that surprises operators. A small shop selling food and household essentials, under 280 square metres, with no comparable facility within a kilometre, is not in Class E at all. It sits in F2, and the flexibility that would let a larger shop become an office, a gym or a nursery without permission simply is not available.

That has a sharp commercial consequence. A landlord who buys a village shop expecting to convert it to a cafe or a consulting room under Class E rights will find they need a planning application, and the council may well have a policy protecting the last shop in the village.

The 1,000 metre test raises an obvious question that the Order does not answer cleanly: what happens when a second shop opens nearby, or closes. Classification is judged on the facts at the time the question arises, so the position can change. Where anything turns on it, ask the local planning authority for a view in writing and consider a lawful development certificate, because the difference between E and F2 decides whether you need permission at all.

Outdoor sport in F2(c) is worth noting alongside indoor sport in Class E. A gym is E. A playing field is F2. They do not interchange.

Moving between F and E

There is no free movement between the classes. F1 to F2, F2 to F1, and either to Class E, are all changes of use requiring permission unless a permitted development right applies.

Part 3 of the General Permitted Development Order contains a limited set of changes involving these uses, including provisions relating to state-funded schools, and those rights come with their own conditions, prior approval requirements and time limits. Check the specific class you want to rely on rather than assuming a general right exists, and check whether an Article 4 direction has removed it locally.

Movement in the other direction is equally restricted. A Class E unit does not become a school, a church or a village shop without permission, which is why congregations looking for premises so often end up with a long planning process rather than a lease and a fit-out. The flexibility that does exist inside Class E is covered in moving within Class E and the evidence to keep.

Policy protection for community facilities

The classification is only half the story. Local plans almost always carry a policy resisting the loss of community facilities, and those policies apply to F1 and F2 uses specifically.

Typical requirements are that the applicant demonstrates the facility is no longer needed or viable, that it has been marketed for a stated period at a realistic price, and that alternative provision exists within a reasonable distance. Marketing periods of twelve to twenty-four months are common, and councils examine the asking price, the agent's particulars and the flexibility offered to prospective community occupiers.

National policy supports this by asking decision makers to guard against the unnecessary loss of valued facilities and services, particularly where that would reduce the community's ability to meet its day to day needs. A listing as an asset of community value adds further weight, though it does not prevent a change of use on its own.

Evidence for an application to change an F2 use

Assemble the material before you apply, because a thin application will be refused and the refusal makes the second attempt harder.

1. Trading accounts covering at least three years, not just the final year of a business that was already winding down.
2. Marketing evidence: the agent's instruction, the asking price and how it was arrived at, the particulars, the enquiry log and the reasons given by those who did not proceed.
3. A comparison of the asking terms against market evidence, so the price cannot be characterised as deterrent.
4. A survey of alternative facilities within a walkable distance, with opening hours and what they actually stock or offer.
5. Evidence of engagement with the parish council, community groups and any organisation that has expressed interest in taking the premises on.
6. A planning statement addressing the adopted policy limb by limb.

Assembling that pack is much the same discipline as any other change of use application, and the approach is set out in our evidence pack for a change of use application. Where the proposal involves food preparation, a transport case or new plant, the supporting documents will need to cover those too.

PlanScope can draft a Planning Statement and a Transport Statement for a change of use of this kind, structured to UK planning policy and marked where local evidence still needs to be supplied. Reports are AI-assisted drafts that should be reviewed before submission, and we do not guarantee planning approval. This is general guidance, not legal advice: confirm the lawful use class of your premises with your local planning authority before committing to a lease or a purchase.