Class MA prior approval: every condition in order

Class MA prior approval conditions fall into two groups that get muddled constantly. There are the qualifying conditions, which decide whether the class is available to you at all, and there are the prior approval matters, which are the only things the authority may consider once it is. Fail the first group and the application is invalid. Misunderstand the second and you submit evidence nobody asked for while omitting the one report that mattered.

What follows takes them in the order Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 sets them out, because that order is also the order in which they are checked.

The gateway conditions before you can apply

Class MA permits the change of use of a building, and land within its curtilage, from Class E commercial, business and service use to Class C3 dwellinghouses.

The threshold condition is use history. The building must have been in a Class E use for a continuous period of at least two years immediately before the date of the application. Not two years at some point, and not two years within Class E as a whole if the use lapsed in between.

Evidence that satisfies an authority looks like this: the lease or licence with its permitted user clause, business rates records showing the description and the dates, utility accounts, dated photographs, and accounts or trading records. Where the building changed hands during the two years, you need the evidence from both occupiers.

Note that the earlier requirement for three months of vacancy immediately before the application was removed with effect from 5 March 2024, so a building in active occupation can now qualify. That change caught out a number of investors who had deliberately emptied buildings.

The floorspace limit and how it is measured

The cumulative floorspace cap of 1,500 square metres was removed on the same date, 5 March 2024. Class MA now has no numerical floorspace limit, which is the single most consequential change to the class since it was introduced.

Two practical consequences follow. Larger office and retail buildings are capable of qualifying, which brings whole upper floors of secondary high street stock into play. And the constraint on how much you can convert is no longer the Order, it is the internal arrangement.

Check the current consolidated text of the Order before you rely on any floorspace position. This class has been amended more than once, and summaries written before March 2024 still circulate.

The vacancy and prior use periods

With vacancy gone, the prior use period is the whole of the historical test, and it is worth being precise about what counts.

Class E covers shops, cafes and restaurants, financial and professional services, other services appropriate to a commercial locality, indoor sport and fitness, medical and health services, creches and day nurseries, offices, research and development and light industry. The scope of the service limb is dealt with in personal service uses and Class E(c)(iii).

Uses outside Class E do not count towards the two years. A building used as a hot food takeaway, a pub, a launderette, a betting shop or any other sui generis use has not been in Class E use, however commercial it looks.

Mixed use buildings need care. Where the ground floor is Class E and the upper floors were last used as storage ancillary to it, the whole building may be within the Class E planning unit. Where the upper floors were separately occupied for a non-Class E purpose, they were not.

Where Class MA does not apply at all

The Order lists sites where the class is unavailable regardless of use history. Those include land that is or forms part of a site of special scientific interest, a listed building or land within its curtilage, a scheduled monument or land within its curtilage, a safety hazard area and a military explosives storage area.

Read the current list rather than relying on this summary, because further exclusions apply and the class has been amended.

Conservation areas are the notable inclusion. Class MA does operate in a conservation area, but the authority then gets an additional prior approval matter dealing with the loss of the ground floor use, which in a parade of shops is a substantive test rather than a formality.

Article 4 directions are the other thing to check before you buy. A direction withdrawing Class MA in a town centre or a defined employment area removes the right entirely, and a number of authorities have made them. The directions are listed on the authority's own website and on the national planning data service.

Matters the authority may consider on prior approval

The list is closed. The authority may require prior approval as to:

1. Transport impacts of the development, particularly to make sure site access is safe.
2. Contamination risks in relation to the building.
3. Flooding risks in relation to the building.
4. The impacts of noise from commercial premises on the intended occupiers.
5. In a conservation area, the impact of the change of use of the ground floor on the character or sustainability of the area.
6. The impact on intended occupiers of introducing residential use into an area the authority considers important for general industry, storage or distribution, waste management or heavy goods vehicle parking.
7. Where the development involves the loss of services provided by a registered nursery or a health centre, the impact on local provision of that service.

Nothing else is in scope. Not design, not parking standards, not affordable housing, not daylight to neighbours, not loss of employment floorspace as a general proposition. Officers occasionally ask for material outside the list, and the correct response is a polite reference to the paragraph.

That seventh matter is the one investors overlook. Buying a building with a nursery or a GP surgery in it brings a service loss test with it, and the answer requires evidence about alternative provision in the area rather than an assertion that the occupier was leaving anyway.

Light, noise and contamination evidence

Three of the prior approval matters need technical work, and the standard expected is the same as it would be on a full application.

A Flood Risk Assessment is the one most often missing. Town centre buildings are frequently in Flood Zone 2 or 3, and the assessment has to deal with the practical problem that you cannot raise floor levels in an existing building, so the answer is usually a flood warning and evacuation plan plus resistant construction at ground floor.

A contaminated land assessment is expected where the building or its surroundings have an industrial history, and that work needs a suitably qualified and experienced author. Where plant, extraction or a late-opening use operates nearby, the acoustic work in a Noise Impact Assessment should cover both the existing sources and the ventilation strategy, because a sealed flat with no cooling is the next objection.

Natural light is a condition rather than a prior approval matter. The Order requires adequate natural light in all habitable rooms, and a floor plan with bedrooms in the middle of a deep plan floor will fail it. The nationally described space standard also applies to dwellings created under permitted development, which sets minimum floor areas and storage.

The 56 day period and deemed approval

The procedure in paragraph W of Part 3 governs the application. The authority has 56 days beginning with the day after it receives a valid application, and if it does not notify you of its decision within that period the development may proceed.

Four practical points about relying on that.

The application must have been valid, which means the right plans, the required floor plan showing the dimensions and proposed use of each room, the statement of the net increase in dwellings, the contact details and the fee. An invalid application never starts the clock.

The deemed approval is subject to the conditions in the Order, including the completion deadline and the space and light requirements. It is not a clean permission.

Keep proof of submission, the date of receipt and all correspondence, because a dispute about the date is a dispute about whether your development is lawful.

And a prior approval, deemed or express, does not override restrictive covenants, a lease, the Building Regulations or protected species law.

What to submit with the application

A workable submission bundle looks like this.

• The application form and fee, with a clear description of the development.
• A location plan and a block plan showing the building and its curtilage.
• Existing and proposed floor plans, with room dimensions and the proposed use of each room marked.
• A statement of the net increase in dwellings.
• Use history evidence covering the two year period, indexed and dated.
• The flood, contamination and noise reports where the matters are engaged.
• A short statement addressing each of the prior approval matters in turn, saying why it is or is not engaged.

That last document is the one that speeds up a determination. An officer who can see, matter by matter, what you say and where the evidence sits is far more likely to decide inside 56 days than one who has to work it out.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a Class MA conversion on your building is likely to need.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.