Light industrial and office uses inside Class E(g)

Class E(g) is the part of the use classes system that gathers offices, research and development premises and light industry into one place. Anything within Class E(g) light industrial or office use can become anything else in Class E without planning permission, which is why a former drawing office can become a dental surgery, a gym or a nursery with no application at all.

The catch sits in the wording of E(g)(iii). Light industrial use qualifies only where it can be carried out in a residential area without detriment to the amenity of that area, and a process that fails that test is not in Class E at all.

What Class E(g) gathers

Sub-paragraph (i) covers use as an office to carry out any operational or administrative functions. Sub-paragraph (ii) covers research and development of products or processes. Sub-paragraph (iii) covers industrial processes, subject to the amenity test.

All three were previously Class B1, abolished in September 2020 when Class E was created. The old B1(a), B1(b) and B1(c) labels still appear on decision notices, in local plan policies written before the change and in marketing particulars, and they map directly onto E(g)(i), (ii) and (iii).

A permission granted for B1 use before September 2020 now takes effect as a permission for the corresponding part of Class E, so an old office consent carries the full flexibility of the new class. That has caught out landlords who assumed their consent limited them.

Light industrial and the residential amenity test

The amenity test is not about where the building actually is. It asks whether the use is of a kind that could be carried on in a residential area without detriment, judged by the character of the process rather than by the site's surroundings.

So a small assembly, repair or finishing operation with hand tools and no significant emissions sits comfortably in E(g)(iii), even on an industrial estate. A process involving sustained noise, vibration, fumes, dust, odour or large goods vehicle movements does not, wherever it is located, and falls into general industry or a sui generis use instead.

The distinction decides enforcement cases. An occupier who moves into an E(g) unit and installs spray booths, a large extraction plant or heavy machinery has made a material change of use requiring permission, even though the building was already in the class they claim to be in.

Research and development premises

Sub-paragraph (ii) covers the development of products and processes, which reaches laboratories, prototyping and testing facilities as long as the activity remains research rather than production.

The line between research and manufacture matters where a business scales up. A laboratory synthesising small quantities is research. The same site producing commercial volumes has become industrial, and whether it stays within Class E then depends on the amenity test in E(g)(iii).

Specialist laboratories bring their own regulatory overlay: hazardous substances consent, environmental permitting, and in some cases containment requirements that sit entirely outside planning. Deal with those in parallel rather than assuming the use class answers them.

Movement between the sub uses

Because all of Class E is one class, moving between E(g)(i), (ii) and (iii) is not development and needs no permission. Nor does moving from E(g) to a shop, a cafe, a clinic, a creche or an indoor sports use.

Two qualifications apply. Physical works may still need permission or building regulations approval, and a change generating new servicing, extraction or noise will need consent for the plant even where the use itself is free. And any condition on the original permission restricting the use to a specific purpose overrides the class, which is why the decision notice has to be read before the marketing particulars.

Where extraction is involved, a ventilation and extraction statement is usually the document the environmental health officer asks for.

Leases lag behind the law as well. Many are still drafted by reference to B1, and a permitted user clause tied to the old class can be narrower than the planning position allows. Raise it at heads of terms rather than after completion.

Where an Article 4 direction applies

Free movement within Class E, and out of it under prior approval, has left authorities with little control over the loss of employment floorspace. Many have responded with Article 4 directions.

Two types are common. Directions removing the Class MA right to convert Class E premises to homes, applied to defined employment areas or town centres. And directions in some authorities restricting changes within Class E itself where the local plan protects a particular use.

Check the authority's Article 4 register before committing to a lease or a purchase, because the boundaries are drawn tightly and a unit two doors away may sit outside the direction. Where a direction applies, the change needs a planning application decided against local plan policy.

Noise and emissions in practice

An E(g) occupier still has to satisfy environmental health. Plant noise, extraction, deliveries at unsociable hours and forklift movements in a yard generate complaints and, where there is an existing condition, enforcement.

The evidence that resolves it is a noise impact assessment setting a rating level at the nearest sensitive receptor, with mitigation described as an outcome rather than a particular item of equipment. Where the unit sits close to housing, offering a management plan covering delivery hours and yard use at application stage saves an argument later.

Fit out is the moment to deal with it. Anti-vibration mounts, an attenuated fan and a sensible yard layout cost far less at first fit than as remedial work with an abatement notice in hand.

Statutory nuisance powers sit behind all of this, independent of planning, and they apply whether or not the use needs permission.

Employment land policy considerations

Local plans allocate employment sites and resist their loss, and that policy still bites when an application is needed, for example where an Article 4 direction applies or where a change to a use outside Class E is proposed.

Evidence expected is familiar: marketing over a defined period at a realistic rent, evidence of demand or its absence, and sometimes an employment land review. Our note on the planning unit and why it decides your change of use explains why the boundary you draw around the site affects how that assessment is carried out.

Evidence for a change into E(g)

Coming into Class E from general industry or storage is different. There is a permitted change from general industrial use to Class E under Part 3 of Schedule 2, subject to a floorspace limit, so check the current text of the Order and the limit before relying on it.

Where an application is needed, the planning statement should describe the proposed process precisely: what happens on site, the equipment, the hours, the vehicle movements and the emissions. Vague descriptions invite conditions that constrain the business later, and an accurate description of a light operation is the strongest argument that E(g)(iii) applies.

One honest caveat: the amenity test in E(g)(iii) is a question of fact and degree, and officers reach different views on similar processes. Where the answer matters commercially, a certificate of lawfulness settles it.

Browse all 66 report types and draft the supporting documents on PlanScope before you submit.

This is general guidance, not legal advice, and a Lawful Development Certificate is the only formal way to confirm that a use is lawful. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.