Livestock buildings and the 400 metre separation distance

A new livestock building or slurry store on an agricultural unit is not permitted development if it sits within 400 metres of the curtilage of a protected building. That livestock building separation distance, in the conditions attached to Class A of Schedule 2 Part 6 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, is the limit that most often sends a farm building into a full planning application. It is measured to a curtilage, not to a wall, and the protected building is often a neighbour's house rather than your own.

Everything hinges on two definitions: what counts as accommodating livestock or storing slurry, and what counts as a protected building.

The distance and what it applies to

The condition bites where the building, structure or excavation would be used for accommodating livestock or for storing slurry or sewage sludge. A general-purpose implement shed within 400 metres is unaffected. A cattle shed is caught. A slurry lagoon is caught. A silage clamp is a separate question, because silage effluent is governed by its own regulations rather than by this condition.

There is an exception for livestock kept in a building temporarily, which exists so that animals can be housed in an emergency without the right being lost. It is narrow. A building designed and used for routine winter housing is not temporary accommodation because the animals leave in April.

Protected buildings and the definition

A protected building means a permanent building normally occupied by people, with exclusions. A building on the same agricultural unit is excluded, and so is a dwelling occupied by a person employed in agriculture on the unit, which is why a farmhouse on the holding does not trigger the condition against the farm's own buildings.

Three practical points. A caravan or a mobile home is not a permanent building. A building used only occasionally, such as a store or an unoccupied barn, is not normally occupied by people. And a holiday let or a converted barn now in residential use by a third party is a protected building, which means a Class Q conversion on a neighbouring holding can quietly remove your permitted development rights for livestock buildings within 400 metres of it.

That last point is worth tracking. Where you expect to expand livestock housing, keep an eye on conversions nearby, and check the planning register periodically. Our note on proving a building was in agricultural use for Class Q explains how those conversions are evidenced.

Measuring the distance properly

Measure from the nearest point of the proposed building, structure or excavation to the nearest point of the curtilage of the protected building. Curtilage is not the title boundary and not the garden fence in every case, though in a straightforward residential property the two usually coincide.

Put the measurement on a drawing. A location plan at 1:2500 with a 400 metre radius struck from the proposed building, every dwelling within that radius labelled, and the measured distance to the nearest curtilage of each, settles the question before an officer has to ask. Where a measurement comes in at 405 metres, expect the authority to check it, so take the measurement from a scaled survey rather than from an online mapping tool.

Slurry, silage and the other regulatory layers

The planning condition is one control among several, and the others apply whether or not you need permission.

Storage of silage, slurry and agricultural fuel oil is regulated separately, with requirements on construction standards for stores and a duty to notify the Environment Agency before bringing a new or substantially altered store into use. The rules for farmers and land managers to prevent water pollution govern application of organic manures to land, and holdings in a nitrate vulnerable zone face storage capacity requirements measured in months of production. None of that is dealt with by a planning notification.

Statutory nuisance under Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 sits behind all of it. A lawfully built slurry store that causes an odour nuisance can still attract an abatement notice from the environmental health team, and the existence of planning permission is not a defence to nuisance.

Prior notification and the design determination

Where a Part 6 building is permitted but significant in scale, the right is conditional on applying to the authority for a determination as to whether its prior approval is required for the siting, design and external appearance of the building. The authority can control those details, and it cannot refuse the principle.

Use the notification well. Submit a siting plan showing the relationship to the farmstead and to dwellings, elevations with materials named, and a short note on access and drainage. Dark profiled sheeting, a roof pitch that matches the existing range and a position tucked behind an existing building answer most of what an officer is likely to ask. A bare plan with no elevations invites a requirement for prior approval and a longer timetable.

Where an application cannot be avoided

Inside the 400 metre distance, a full planning application is the only route for livestock housing or slurry storage. The assessment then covers odour, noise, flies, vehicle movements, visual effect and amenity, and the evidence expected is proportionate to the scale and the proximity.

What tends to be required:

• an odour assessment where housing or storage is close to dwellings, prepared to recognised methodology
• a noise position covering ventilation fans, feed systems and vehicle movements
• a manure and slurry management statement showing storage capacity and spreading arrangements
• a drainage and pollution prevention position, including clean and dirty water separation
• a visual appraisal where the building is prominent in open country
• a transport note where feed and muck movements use a residential lane

Odour assessment for intensive livestock is specialist work. Councils usually expect a suitably qualified author and professional review is strongly advised, and for an intensive unit above the environmental permitting thresholds the permit application runs alongside the planning application rather than after it.

Evidencing the distance on a plan

Three drawings do the job, and they are the least costly insurance in a farm application.

1. A location plan with the 400 metre radius drawn and every dwelling inside it numbered.
2. A schedule listing each numbered dwelling, its status as a protected building or not, and the measured distance to its curtilage.
3. A site plan showing the proposed structure, the existing farmstead, access and drainage.

Where you are relying on a dwelling being excluded, because it is on the same agricultural unit or occupied by an agricultural worker on the unit, state the basis and provide the evidence. An occupancy condition on the dwelling, a contract of employment or the holding's land registry extent will usually carry it. Where you are relying on something being outside the right for structural reasons, our note on Class Q structural works and what is reasonably necessary covers the comparable evidential discipline.

A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful, so where the distance is marginal, apply for one rather than building on a measurement. PlanScope will draft a planning statement for a farm building application from the site details and your answers. Enter the postcode to see which other reports the 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. This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.