Part 6 agricultural development and the prior notification

Agricultural permitted development under Schedule 2 Part 6 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 splits at five hectares. A unit of five hectares or more gets the wider right, including new buildings up to a fixed ground area. A smaller unit, down to a floor of 0.4 hectares, gets a much narrower right that allows extensions and works but no new building. Below 0.4 hectares there are no Part 6 rights at all.

Before most of that work starts you have to serve a prior notification and wait. The council then has 28 days to tell you whether it wants to approve the siting, design and external appearance, and it is that 28 day window, rather than the size limits, that catches people out on site.

Which set of rights applies to your holding

The unit is the agricultural unit, meaning the land occupied as a unit for agricultural purposes, and not the individual field. Parcels that are separated but farmed together can count as one unit, which is why the first question a case officer asks is usually for a plan showing the whole holding and the tenure of each part.

For a unit of five hectares or more, the right covers works or a building reasonably necessary for the purposes of agriculture within that unit. For a unit between 0.4 and five hectares, the right is limited to extending or altering an existing agricultural building, installing plant or machinery, providing a private way, and a short list of similar works. New buildings are outside it.

Two traps sit in the wording. The development has to be reasonably necessary for agriculture on that unit, so a building serving a contracting business or a neighbouring farm is not covered. And a building on a parcel of less than one hectare, separated from the rest of the holding, is excluded even where the whole unit is large.

The limits on a new building

The main constraints on a building under the wider right are the ground area, the height, and the distance from roads and from other people's homes.

A protected building means, broadly, a permanent building normally occupied by people, with exclusions for buildings on the same unit. That 400 metre rule is the one that most often turns a Part 6 project into a full application, because modern farmsteads sit close to converted cottages that were once part of the same holding.

Read the exact wording before you design. The figures above are the shape of the restrictions, and the Order carries qualifications that matter on a particular site.

The 28 day prior notification

Where the development is the erection, extension or alteration of a building, the formation of a private way, an excavation or a deposit of waste, you must first apply to the local planning authority for a determination as to whether its prior approval is required. The application describes the proposed development, gives a plan of the site, and pays the prescribed fee.

The authority then has 28 days from receipt. Three outcomes follow:

1. It notifies you that prior approval is not required, and you may build as notified.
2. It notifies you that prior approval is required, and you submit the details it asks for and wait for a decision.
3. It says nothing within 28 days, and you may build as notified.

The scope of what the council can control is deliberately narrow. For a building it is the siting, design and external appearance. For a private way it is the siting and means of construction. For an excavation or deposit it is the siting only. The authority cannot use the process to argue about whether the farm needs the building, although it can and will ask for evidence that the development is reasonably necessary for agriculture, because that is what brings the proposal inside Part 6 in the first place.

Development that has been notified must be begun within five years of the date of the determination or the expiry of the 28 days. Miss that and the notification lapses.

Evidence that the use is agricultural

The word agriculture is defined in section 336 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and it is broader than most people expect, taking in horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, breeding and keeping livestock, grazing land, market gardens and nurseries. It does not take in equestrian use for riding or livery, which is a common and expensive misunderstanding.

Put the evidence in the notification rather than waiting to be asked. A holding plan, the area in hectares, the enterprise, stock numbers or cropping, and a short explanation of why the building is needed for that enterprise on that unit. Where the farm is expanding, a business case helps. Councils refuse Part 6 notifications far more often for a weak agricultural justification than for a breach of the dimensional limits.

If the building will later serve something else, say diversification into storage or events, do not build it under Part 6 and hope. The condition attaching to the right is that the building is used for agriculture, and a change of use afterwards needs permission in its own right. There are also restrictions on converting recently erected agricultural buildings to dwellings under Class Q, and the exclusion period is set in the Order and has been amended, so check the current wording before you plan a conversion route.

Roads, excavations and waste

Private ways, hardstanding, excavations and waste deposits are covered by Part 6 as well as buildings, with their own qualifications. A new farm track serving the holding is usually permitted, subject to the notification, but a track that also serves a non-agricultural use is not.

Where the works involve excavation or the deposit of material, check the waste position separately. Depositing construction waste on agricultural land can require an environmental permit or an exemption from the Environment Agency regardless of what the planning position is, and the two regimes do not speak to each other.

Drainage is the other overlap. A large building with a substantial roof area changes surface water run-off, and where the council asks for a Drainage Strategy with the notification it is generally cheaper to provide it than to argue about the scope of prior approval.

What to submit and what comes next

For a straightforward livestock building on a large unit, the notification pack is a location plan, a site plan showing the position and the distances to protected buildings and roads, elevations with materials, and a short justification. Where the setting is sensitive, adding a colour and materials note and a landscaping proposal at the outset usually avoids a prior approval requirement being triggered on external appearance.

Where the scheme falls outside Part 6, a full application follows, and then a Planning Statement dealing with rural policy, an Agricultural Land Classification where best and most versatile land is affected, and a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal will usually be needed. Ecological survey work and any mitigation licence must be carried out by a suitably licensed ecologist, and an AI-assisted draft is a starting point for that professional rather than a replacement for the survey.

Serve the notification before you order the frame. The 28 days runs from receipt, not from the day the steel arrives.

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.