Co-working space in a former office building

Turning a former office building into co-working space usually needs no planning application at all. Offices sit in Class E(g)(i) of the Use Classes Order and co-working is still office use, so the change is not development under section 55(2)(f) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Co-working space planning permission becomes a live question only when something else is going on: a condition on the original permission that restricts the use, an ancillary element that falls outside Class E, or external works that need consent in their own right.

Check the planning history before you sign the lease. That is where the answer usually is.

Whether permission is needed at all

Class E covers a wide span: shops, food and drink for consumption on the premises, indoor sport and recreation, medical and creche uses, offices, research and development, and light industrial processes that can be carried on in a residential area without detriment to amenity. Movement between any of them is not development.

Co-working with hot desks, private studios, meeting rooms, a coffee counter for members and a mail service stays inside E(g)(i) with an ancillary E(b) element. No application.

Three things change that answer.

A condition on the permission that granted the office use, restricting occupation to a named occupier, to a specific former use class such as B1(a), or to defined hours. A condition takes priority over the general flexibility of Class E, and removing it means a section 73 application. Older permissions carry these more often than people expect.

An article 4 direction withdrawing permitted development rights or restricting changes within the class in that area. Some authorities have made directions covering defined employment areas.

And a planning obligation in a section 106 agreement tying the floorspace to a particular use or requiring an employment contribution on change.

Intensification and when it becomes material

Intensification of an existing use can amount to a material change of use where it alters the character of the use. Inside Class E that rarely bites, because a change within the same class is not development regardless of the number of desks.

Where it starts to matter is when the intensification produces effects the authority can act on through other routes. A building designed for 120 staff on a one-desk-per-ten-square-metre basis, now holding 300 members, generates more trips, more waste, more plant load and more evening activity. None of that is a change of use. All of it can trigger enforcement on conditions, complaints to environmental health, or a highway authority interest if you apply for anything else later.

The honest position: the use class is not your problem, and the building services and the servicing arrangements probably are.

Cycle parking, showers and end of trip facilities

Fitting showers, lockers and a cycle store inside the building is internal work and not development. Adding a cycle store in the forecourt or a canopy on the elevation is.

Where a planning application is needed for anything else, cycle parking standards in the local plan will be applied to the whole building at the new occupancy, not just to the part you are changing. In London, the London Plan sets long stay and short stay cycle parking standards by use and floorspace, and boroughs apply them strictly.

Plan the cycle store properly even where no consent is needed. Retrofitting a compliant store into a building designed around a car park is expensive, and a co-working operator with no secure cycle parking loses members to one that has it.

Events, bars and ancillary uses

This is where co-working conversions most often cross a line.

A bar serving members during working hours is ancillary. A bar open to the public in the evening is a drinking establishment, which is sui generis since the 2020 amendments and outside Class E entirely. The same logic applies to a venue hired out for public events, ticketed talks or weddings.

The test is whether the additional activity is ancillary to the main office use or has become a separate use in its own right. Frequency, public access, separate entrance, separate branding and separate revenue all point towards a separate use.

Two practical routes. Keep the events properly ancillary, limited to members and their guests, and document that in the operating model. Or apply for a mixed use, which gives certainty and lets you licence properly under the Licensing Act 2003. Applying later, after complaints, is the worst of the three options. Our note on Class E change of use inside the class sets out where the boundaries of the class sit.

Noise from terraces and roof space

Creating a roof terrace is development, because it is an engineering or building operation and it introduces a new use of that roof. It needs permission, and it attracts objections on overlooking and noise.

Terraces on office conversions in mixed areas are the single most conditioned element of these schemes. Expect restrictions on hours, on amplified sound, on numbers, and sometimes on use for events at all. Where residential windows face the terrace, a Noise Impact Assessment dealing with both plant and activity is usually needed, and councils generally expect an acoustician to prepare it.

Plant is the other half of the noise case. Increased occupancy means more cooling, and new condensers on a roof are development where they materially affect the external appearance. BS 4142 applies to the plant, and a rating level set relative to background at the nearest residential facade is the standard condition.

Waste and servicing for many small occupiers

An office with one tenant has one waste contract, one delivery pattern and one facilities manager. A co-working building with 200 members has parcel deliveries all day, food deliveries at lunchtime, and a waste stream that includes packaging, food waste and coffee grounds.

The servicing question comes up whenever any application is made, and it is worth solving anyway. Show where a delivery vehicle stops, where parcels are received and stored, where the bins live and how they get to the collection point without crossing the pedestrian entrance.

Food waste is the detail that causes complaints. A building generating daily food waste needs enclosed, ventilated storage with a collection frequency to match, which is a different proposition from the weekly dry recycling the building was designed around.

Where a change of use application is unavoidable

Four situations put you in the application queue.

1. The building is not in Class E. A former warehouse in B8, a light industrial unit that has drifted to B2, or a sui generis use all need a full change of use application, and the loss of employment floorspace policy will be tested.
2. A condition restricts the use, requiring a section 73 application to vary or remove it.
3. The operating model includes a separate public-facing use such as a bar, a venue or a public cafe.
4. The works include external alterations, a roof terrace, new plant, signage or a new entrance.

Where an application is needed, support it with trip generation and servicing evidence rather than assertion. A short transport statement showing the change in trips against the consented office occupancy answers the highway officer's question directly.

And check whether any upper floors are being considered for residential conversion at the same time, because that route runs through Class MA prior approval and carries its own conditions, covered in Class MA prior approval from shop to home.

This is general guidance, not legal advice, so check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a conversion on your building 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.