Marketing evidence for a change of use: what councils accept

Marketing evidence in a planning application fails on price more often than on period. Councils reject it because the premises were offered at a figure reflecting what the site would be worth as flats rather than what it is worth as a shop, a pub or a workshop, and an officer who spots that will discount the whole exercise no matter how long it ran.

Everything else, the length, the channels, the log, is easier to get right than the number on the particulars.

Why the policy asks for it

Local plan policies protecting shops, public houses, community facilities and employment land almost always contain a clause allowing the loss of the use where it can be shown there is no reasonable prospect of it continuing. Marketing evidence is how you show that. National policy pushes in both directions, guarding against the unnecessary loss of valued facilities while also discouraging the long-term protection of sites with no realistic prospect of being used for their allocated purpose.

The burden sits on the applicant. The council does not have to prove the unit is lettable, and an officer faced with thin evidence will simply find the policy test unmet.

Note that a change within Class E needs no permission at all, so marketing evidence is never required to move from a shop to a gym or an office. The requirement bites on losses out of a protected use: a public house, a Class F2 local community facility, industrial or storage floorspace, or a shop in a designated frontage where the local plan protects it.

The period, and starting it early enough

Read the policy and take the period from it. Local plans specify anything from six months to two years, sometimes with a longer period for employment land than for a single retail unit, and a marketing exercise that stops a month short of the stated figure is straightforwardly non-compliant.

Start before the application, not alongside it. Marketing that began the week the application went in tells a case officer that the exercise was constructed to support a decision already made. Where the premises have been vacant for years, marketing evidence covering the last six months of that period is far weaker than evidence running across the vacancy.

Keep the premises presentable while marketing. Offering a unit with a leaking roof, boarded windows and no services connected, then citing the absence of interest, invites the response that the lack of demand was manufactured.

Pricing at a level the council will accept

Price at the value of the existing use, in its current condition, in the current market. Not at the residential development value. Not at the figure the owner paid in a stronger market.

Support it. An independent valuation from a valuer registered with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors carries far more weight than a letter from the agent retained to sell the property, because the retained agent has an obvious interest in the outcome. Where the local plan requires a specific approach, or where a viability argument runs alongside, that valuation may need to sit within a full viability assessment rather than standing alone.

Show the comparables. Three or four recent lettings or sales of genuinely similar premises in the same area, with dates, areas and achieved figures, will do more to persuade an officer than any amount of narrative. And if the asking price was reduced during the campaign, say so and give the dates, because a price that moved in response to a lack of interest is evidence of genuine marketing.

Terms that make marketing look genuine

The terms offered are part of the evidence and are picked apart at appeal.

Offer the premises both freehold and leasehold where the ownership allows it. Offer a lease length a small business could realistically take, rather than only a 15-year full repairing and insuring term with no break. Avoid restrictive user clauses that exclude the very operators most likely to be interested. Do not refuse to split a large unit if it could reasonably be split, or at least record why it cannot be.

Each of these is a lever an objector will pull. Deal with them in the marketing statement rather than waiting to be asked.

Channels, the board and the record

Marketing has to be visible where the relevant buyers look, which for a commercial unit means a commercial agent with a local presence, the trade portals appropriate to the sector, and a board on the building. A pub marketed only through a residential estate agent is not marketed to the licensed trade.

Keep dated records as you go, because reconstructing them afterwards is painful and unconvincing:

• The agent's instruction letter and the date it took effect.
• The particulars as issued, with the asking price and terms visible.
• Dated photographs of the board in place on the building.
• Dated screenshots or listing records from every portal used, showing continuous listing rather than a single upload.
• Advertisements in trade press or local press, with publication dates.

Continuity is what officers check. A listing that appeared for three weeks in month one and was never refreshed is not 12 months of marketing.

Presenting the enquiry log

The enquiry log is the heart of the submission, and it should be a table, not prose. One row per enquiry, with the date, the type of enquirer, what they asked about, whether a viewing took place, what offer if any was made, and why the enquiry ended.

That last column carries the argument. An enquiry that ended because the enquirer wanted a shorter lease than the owner would grant reads very differently from one that ended because the enquirer decided the location was wrong. Be honest in it. A log in which every enquiry ended with the enquirer losing interest for unstated reasons is not credible, and an inspector will say so.

Include the near misses. Where an offer was received and rejected, explain the reason, because an unexplained rejected offer is the single most damaging item an objector can point to.

Where the proposal is to bring a long-empty building back into use rather than to lose the existing one, the emphasis shifts, and the considerations in bringing vacant premises back into occupation apply instead.

Where the evidence is routinely rejected

Officers and inspectors turn down marketing evidence for a short list of recurring reasons. The period fell short of the policy requirement. The asking price was unsupported by valuation evidence or plainly reflected an alternative use. The unit was offered on terms no operator would take. Marketing began after the application. The property was in a condition that deterred interest. Or there was no on-site board and no sector-appropriate advertising.

Answer all six in the marketing statement, explicitly, with a heading for each. An officer writing a delegated report wants to lift the conclusion straight out of your document, and making that easy is worth more than another twenty pages of background.

Where the loss of the use has wider effects on local employment, an economic impact assessment can carry the positive side of the case, and a temporary consent may be a better route where the long-term use is genuinely uncertain, as set out in the note on meanwhile use and temporary permissions.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Marketing periods and evidence requirements are set by each local plan, so check the adopted policy wording with your local planning authority before instructing an agent.

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