Meanwhile use and temporary permissions in town centres

Most meanwhile use planning permission questions answer themselves once you work out which use class the unit sits in and which class you want to put in it. Move within Class E and there is no development, so no application. Move out of Class E into a sui generis use and you need permission, temporary or otherwise. That single distinction decides whether a six month occupation of an empty shop takes two days of paperwork or twelve weeks of determination.

The rest of the work is commercial rather than planning: the lease or licence, the rates position, the landlord's consents and the insurer. Occupiers routinely get the planning right and then lose the unit because nobody asked the superior landlord.

What meanwhile use means in practice

Meanwhile use is short term occupation of premises awaiting redevelopment, reletting or sale. In town centres that usually means a vacant shop or a first floor office taken for a few months by a maker, a community group, a testing retailer, a gallery or a training provider.

Landlords take it for three reasons: rates mitigation, security through occupation, and the argument it supports at planning stage that the building has a future. Occupiers take it because the rent is low and the commitment is short. The arrangement works when both sides are honest that it ends.

The planning system has no category called meanwhile use. It has use classes, permitted development and temporary permissions, and the scheme has to fit one of them.

Whether permission is needed at all

Start with the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 as amended in 2020. Class E now covers retail, cafes and restaurants, financial and professional services to visiting members of the public, indoor sport and recreation, medical and health services, creches and day nurseries, offices, research and development, and light industrial processes that can be carried out in a residential area without detriment to amenity.

A change between any of those is not development, so a shop can become a gallery selling work, a cafe, a yoga studio, a co-working space or a workshop without an application. That is the widest flexibility the English system has ever offered a town centre occupier, and it covers the majority of meanwhile proposals.

What sits outside Class E is where care is needed.

Note the trap in that table. Once a unit leaves Class E for a sui generis or F class use, the Class E flexibility is gone and returning needs permission. A landlord who lets a shop to a bar for a summer has changed the unit's planning status, which is worth knowing before the lease is signed.

Short events are different again. Part 4 Class B of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits the temporary use of land for any purpose for up to 28 days in a calendar year, reduced to 14 days for markets and motor car racing, subject to conditions and exclusions. That covers a market or an outdoor event, not the occupation of a building for six months.

Temporary permissions and their conditions

Where permission is needed, ask for a temporary one. Section 72 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows conditions requiring a use to be discontinued at the end of a specified period, and national guidance on the use of planning conditions explains when a time limited permission is appropriate.

A temporary permission is easier to argue for than a permanent one. It lets the authority test an activity it is unsure about, and it lets an officer recommend approval without setting a precedent they will be held to.

Two points from the guidance are worth knowing. A temporary permission is not appropriate simply because an applicant proposes a temporary activity, so give the planning reason the period is limited, for example a known redevelopment date. And the guidance warns against repeated temporary permissions for the same use, so plan the exit rather than assuming a renewal.

Expect conditions on hours of opening, refuse storage, external lighting, noise from plant and amplified sound, and a clear end date with an obligation to restore the unit.

Use class flexibility and its limits

Three limits catch people out. Article 4 directions can remove permitted development rights in a defined area, so check whether one applies to the unit before relying on any prior approval route. Conditions on an earlier permission can restrict the use of a unit more tightly than the use class allows, which is common on units within a larger scheme. And a lawful use has to be established as a matter of fact, so a unit vacant for years may not have the Class E status everyone assumes.

Check the planning history before committing. Where the proposal involves losing a shop, the authority may want evidence of marketing and demand, which we have looked at in our note on evidencing the loss of a shop under a Class E change.

Larger proposals, or those outside a defined centre, can trigger the retail sequential approach and an assessment of effects on existing centres. That is unusual for meanwhile use but not impossible, and the Retail Impact Assessment page explains the threshold position.

Business rates and lease implications

Rates often drive the deal. Empty property relief applies for a limited period after a property becomes vacant, and reoccupation for a minimum period resets that entitlement. The length of the reoccupation period in England was changed in 2024, so confirm the current rule with the billing authority rather than working from an older figure.

Charities occupying premises wholly or mainly for charitable purposes attract mandatory relief with a discretionary top up, which is why so many meanwhile schemes are structured through a charity or community interest company. Retail and hospitality relief schemes change each financial year, so check the current position with the council rather than assuming last year's percentage.

On the occupation document, short arrangements are usually a licence or a tenancy excluded from the security of tenure provisions in Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. Leases granted for a term certain not exceeding six months are outside those provisions in any event, subject to the conditions in the Act. Get that right at the start, because an occupier who acquires security of tenure in a building due for demolition is an expensive problem.

Landlord consents alongside planning

Planning permission does not give anyone a right to occupy. Run these checks in parallel.

1. The headlease, for alienation and user clauses that may prohibit the proposed activity outright.
2. Superior landlord consent where the immediate landlord is itself a tenant.
3. Mortgagee consent, which is routinely forgotten and routinely required.
4. Buildings insurance, since insurers price vacant property differently and a change of use without notice can void cover.
5. Fire safety and any works needing building regulations approval for a material change of use.
6. A premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003 where alcohol, late night refreshment or regulated entertainment is involved.

Signage needs its own consent under the advertisement regulations, and a temporary occupier who fixes a large fascia sign without it will hear from enforcement.

Making the temporary case at committee

Lead with the end date and the reason for it. Officers and members are far more comfortable approving something with a defined stop than something open ended, and a committed redevelopment programme makes the temporary nature credible.

Then deal with the objections before they are raised: hours, noise, refuse, parking and the effect on nearby residents. Offer conditions rather than waiting to be given them. Where the proposal brings jobs or training into a unit that has been empty, an Economic Impact Assessment gives the officer something to weigh in the balance, and the wider question of credits for vacant floorspace is covered in our note on the vacant building credit.

Illustrative example. A community group takes an empty unit for eight months as a repair workshop and cafe. The unit is Class E, the workshop is light industrial within Class E, and the cafe is within Class E, so no application is needed. Advertisement consent is obtained for a new fascia, the licence is excluded from the 1954 Act, and the landlord's insurer is notified. Total planning cost: the advertisement application fee. The example is illustrative.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice. 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. Browse all 66 PlanScope report types and start a draft.