Part 3 Class G: creating a flat above a shop

Creating a flat above a shop under permitted development is possible without a planning application, and the right that allows it is one of the quieter corners of Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015. Class G permits a change of use from a qualifying commercial use to a mixed use consisting of that commercial use together with up to two flats. The shop keeps trading. The upper floors become homes. No prior approval application is required, which makes it faster than any other residential conversion route in the Order.

It is also narrower than it looks, and the limits catch people after the builders have started.

What Class G permits, and in which direction

The right works one way: commercial to mixed. The building ends up in a mixed use, with the ground floor commercial use continuing and up to two flats above or alongside it. It does not permit the wholesale conversion of a building to residential, and it does not permit three flats.

Part 3 also contains the matching right to go back, from the mixed use to the wholly commercial use, so the move is reversible without an application. That reversibility is part of the policy logic: the right is meant to put empty upper floors to use without permanently losing the commercial unit.

Two consequences follow. The commercial use has to continue, in substance rather than on paper. And the planning unit becomes mixed, which affects how later changes are assessed, in the same way the separate planning unit problem with garden offices affects what counts as incidental.

The qualifying commercial use and the historic use condition

The use you are changing from has to be one of the uses the class specifies. Since the Use Classes Order was recast in 2020, the relevant commercial uses sit largely within Class E, with certain sui generis uses named separately in the Order.

Class G also carries a condition tying the qualifying use to a date in December 2013, or to the use when the building was last in use where it was vacant on that date. That condition exists to stop the right being used by premises that only became a qualifying use later, and it catches buildings that have moved between uses in the intervening years. Check the current wording of the class before relying on it, because Part 3 has been amended repeatedly and the conditions attached to each class differ.

Evidence for the historic use is the usual set: business rates records, old leases, trade directories, photographs, planning history. Assemble it before you start, because if the right is challenged later the burden of showing the preconditions were met falls on you.

Access, the separate entrance and the works that need permission

Class G permits a change of use. It does not permit building works.

That is where most schemes meet their first planning application. A flat above a shop needs its own front door, which usually means taking a section of the shopfront for a street door and a staircase, or forming an entrance at the rear or the side. Any of those is an external alteration requiring planning permission in its own right, and in a conservation area or on a building with a historic shopfront the design will be scrutinised.

Internal works are different. Internal alterations to a building that is not listed are generally not development, so stripping out and subdividing the upper floors is not itself a planning matter. The moment you touch the external envelope, including new or altered windows, a rooflight, a flue, a bin store enclosure or a cycle store, you are back in the application system.

Plan the access from the street before you plan the flats. A scheme that works internally and has no lawful way in is not a scheme.

Residential standards and building regulations

Two separate regimes apply once the flats exist, and neither is covered by the permitted development right.

Since 2021, permitted development rights that create new dwellings have been subject to conditions requiring compliance with the nationally described space standard and adequate natural light to habitable rooms. Check which of those conditions attach to the class you are using, because they were applied across Part 3 with some variation.

Building regulations are the harder constraint. Fire separation between a commercial ground floor and residential above is a substantial piece of work: compartmentation, protected escape routes, fire doors, alarm systems linked between the uses, and in some configurations a protected stair that cannot pass through the commercial unit. Sound insulation between the commercial use and the dwellings has to meet the separating floor requirements, and a kitchen extract or a plant run through the building complicates both.

Where the commercial use is a hot food takeaway or a restaurant, the odour, noise and fire issues multiply, and the conversion often fails on buildability rather than on planning.

Designated land, listed buildings and Article 4

Listed buildings are excluded. So are scheduled monuments. If the building is listed, Class G is unavailable and you need both planning permission and listed building consent, with a Heritage Statement addressing the effect on special interest.

Article 4 directions can withdraw the right, and authorities concerned about the loss of commercial frontage or about residential amenity in town centres have made them. Check the authority's register of directions and its policies map before relying on the class. The check is the same one you would run before a householder project, and the consequences of missing it are the same.

Conservation area status does not by itself remove the right, but it bears heavily on the external works you will need permission for, and an unsympathetic street door cut into a Victorian shopfront is a refusal waiting to happen.

Where Class MA is the better route

Class MA permits the change of a Class E building to residential use, with prior approval required and its own qualifying conditions on previous use and vacancy. It has been amended since it was introduced, so check the current text rather than a summary, and the detail of the vacancy and continuous use conditions is where most MA applications succeed or fail.

Which route fits depends on what you want:

• Keep the shop trading and add one or two flats above: Class G, no prior approval, fastest route.
• Convert the whole building to flats and lose the commercial use: Class MA, prior approval required, longer but delivers more units.
• Three or more flats above a retained shop: a planning application, because Class G caps at two.
• A listed building, or a site covered by an Article 4 direction: a planning application whatever the configuration.

The commercial reality is that Class G suits a landlord with a let ground floor and dead storage above. Class MA suits a building whose commercial use has already failed. Choosing MA to get more units, when the shop is still trading and generating rent, often costs more in vacancy than it gains in value.

Illustrative example

A two storey terraced unit has a let ground floor retail tenant and two unused upper floors with their own rear yard. The owner forms two one-bedroom flats under Class G. The flats are reached by a new door at the rear, which needs planning permission because it alters the external appearance, and the application is granted with a condition on the bin and cycle store. Building regulations require a protected stair, a 60 minute compartment floor and an interlinked alarm. The historic use condition is satisfied from business rates records showing continuous retail occupation. This example is illustrative and is not based on a real scheme.

Confirming the position before you build

A Lawful Development Certificate for proposed use or development under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the only formal way to confirm that the change of use is lawful. On a Class G scheme it is worth the fee, because the historic use condition and the designated land exclusions are exactly the sort of thing a future purchaser's solicitor will raise.

One honest uncertainty: authorities differ on how much continuing commercial activity satisfies the mixed use requirement, and a ground floor let to a lock-up storage tenant may not be treated as a continuing qualifying use. Where the commercial use is marginal, take the certificate route before converting.

A short Planning Statement setting out the use history, the evidence for the historic use condition and the external works proposed will support both the certificate and any associated application. Browse the PlanScope report types to see what else a conversion in a conservation area may need.

This is general guidance, not 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.