Meanwhile use and temporary permissions: the commercial case

Temporary planning permission for a meanwhile use is worth asking for only after you have checked whether you need permission at all. A great many meanwhile uses in vacant shops and offices require nothing, because Class E of the Use Classes Order already covers retail, cafés, offices, gyms, nurseries, clinics and light industry, and moving between them is not development. Establish that first. Where the proposed use falls outside Class E, or involves building operations, the temporary route becomes relevant, and the terms you negotiate then decide whether the venture is commercially worth doing.

When permission is needed at all

Work through three questions in order.

Does the use fall within Class E, and was the building last in Class E use? If yes for both, a change between uses inside the class is not development and needs no application. A vacant clothes shop becoming a coffee shop, a co-working space or a pilates studio is the common example.

Does the use fall outside Class E? Drinking establishments, hot food takeaways, live music venues, nightclubs, betting shops and payday loan shops are all sui generis, and moving into one of those from Class E needs planning permission. Community and learning uses in classes F1 and F2 sit outside E too.

Do you need building operations? External alterations, a new shopfront, flues and extraction, or a change to the frontage may need permission even where the use does not.

The 28-day rule and its limits

Schedule 2 Part 4 Class B of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits the use of any land for any purpose for not more than 28 days in total in any calendar year, of which no more than 14 days may be for a market or for motor car and motorcycle racing, together with the provision of moveable structures for the purposes of that use.

It is a useful right for pop-ups, markets, outdoor cinema and events, and it is misunderstood in three ways.

It applies to the use of land, not to the use of a building, so it does not authorise occupying a vacant shop for four weeks. The 28 days are cumulative across the calendar year and across all temporary uses of that land, not per event. And the right is disapplied on some land, including sites within the curtilage of a listed building and certain designations, so check the class conditions.

What the guidance allows on temporary permissions

Section 72 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets an authority grant permission for a limited period. Planning Practice Guidance on the use of conditions sets out when that is appropriate, and the guidance is more restrictive than most applicants expect.

A temporary permission may be justified where a trial run is needed to assess the effect of the development, or where the planning circumstances are expected to change in a known way. It is not a route for permitting development that would be unacceptable permanently. An authority that grants a short permission because it dislikes the scheme has not solved anything, and the guidance says as much.

That cuts both ways for a meanwhile use. If your case is that the unit is vacant, that the use is compatible, and that the site is allocated for redevelopment in a few years, you are squarely within the guidance. If your case is that the use is marginal on amenity grounds but you promise to leave, you are not.

Getting the duration right

Duration is the negotiation that decides the commercial case, because fit-out has to be amortised over the permitted period.

Councils often start at twelve months. Ask for three to five years, and support the request with a fit-out cost schedule showing the payback period. Where the site has a redevelopment programme, tie the request to it, so the permission expires when vacant possession is actually needed rather than on an arbitrary date.

Build in a route to extend. A further application under section 73 can vary the condition limiting the period, and it is much easier to argue for an extension once the use has run without complaint than to argue for five years at the outset. Keep the complaint record, because it becomes your evidence.

Watch one trap. A temporary permission with a condition requiring the use to cease and the premises to be restored prevents the use becoming lawful through the passage of time, so the ten-year immunity route is closed off while the condition stands.

Conditions to seek, and conditions to resist

Ask for a condition that defines the use broadly enough to allow the offer to change, since a meanwhile use that cannot adapt will fail commercially.

Resist personal conditions that tie the permission to a named operator, unless the alternative is refusal, because they make the business unsaleable and unassignable.

Expect conditions on hours of opening, deliveries, plant noise, extraction and waste storage, and treat those as the price of entry rather than as an argument. Where the use involves cooking, a Ventilation and Extraction Statement at application stage lets you propose an extract route and odour control system before environmental health writes a condition you cannot meet in a listed shopfront. Where plant or music is involved, a Noise Impact Assessment against BS 4142 does the same for the noise condition.

Resist a restoration condition that requires more than reinstatement of what you changed.

The consents that sit alongside planning

Planning is one of five or six things a meanwhile use needs, and the others often take longer.

A premises licence for alcohol or regulated entertainment runs on its own timetable with its own consultation. Food business registration is required at least 28 days before opening. Building regulations apply to any material alteration or change of use. Advertisement consent is needed for most signage. Business rates liability transfers to the occupier, and the empty rates position for the landlord changes when you move in, which is worth agreeing in the lease.

Lease structure matters as much as any of it. Meanwhile uses commonly run on a tenancy at will or a short lease contracted out of the security provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, so both sides know the arrangement ends.

Making the case in the application

Write the Planning Statement around four points, in this order.

1. The unit is vacant, with evidence of the vacancy period and any marketing.
2. The use is compatible with the area and with the policies that apply to it, addressing noise, hours, servicing and amenity directly.
3. The temporary period is justified by a known future change, whether that is a redevelopment programme, a lease expiry or a plan allocation.
4. The public benefit is real, whether that is town centre vitality, employment, a community facility or the removal of a shuttered frontage.

Then propose your own conditions. An applicant who offers the hours, the extract specification and the cessation date usually gets a decision faster than one who leaves the officer to draft them.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Use class boundaries and permitted development rights change, so check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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