Prior approval fees for Class MA and Part 3 changes

The prior approval fee for Class MA is a flat charge per application, not a charge per flat, and that single difference is usually the largest saving in a small commercial-to-residential conversion. A full application for change of use to ten flats is charged by number of dwellings. A Class MA prior approval application for the same ten flats is charged once. The figures move every April under indexation, so the amounts below are deliberately described rather than quoted, and the current schedule is the only safe source.

What the lower fee buys you is narrower, though. Prior approval is not planning permission in the ordinary sense, and understanding what the council is allowed to consider is what stops a conversion budget unravelling.

What a prior approval application actually decides

Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 grants permission for certain changes of use already, subject to conditions. One of those conditions is that the developer must apply to the local planning authority for a determination as to whether prior approval is required for specified matters. The authority cannot refuse on grounds outside that list.

For Class MA, which covers commercial, business and service use in Class E to dwellinghouses, the specified matters include transport and highways impacts, contamination risk, flooding risk, noise from commercial premises affecting the future residents, the provision of adequate natural light in all habitable rooms, and where the building sits in a conservation area, the impact of the loss of the ground floor use. Design and external appearance are not on the list. Neither is the loss of employment floorspace as a policy matter, nor affordable housing, which is why the route is attractive and why councils dislike it.

The eligibility conditions do the work that the assessment does not. Class MA requires the building to have been in Class E use for at least two years, to have been vacant for at least three continuous months immediately before the application, and it caps the floorspace changing use. Listed buildings and several categories of designated land are excluded outright. Check the Order as amended rather than a summary, because these conditions have been altered more than once.

Which classes carry which fee

The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012, as amended, set a separate fee category for applications for prior approval, and the amount differs by the Part and in some cases by the class. Part 3 changes of use sit at the low end. Larger extensions under Part 1, telecommunications under Part 16 and agricultural development under Part 6 each have their own figures.

Fees were uplifted in December 2023 and are indexed annually from 1 April, so quote the current figure from the fee schedule on the day you submit. Our note on when no planning fee is payable covers the exemptions that sometimes apply, and the banding logic for larger sites is set out in the piece on outline application fees and the site area bands.

What the application has to contain

A prior approval application is not a light-touch submission. For Class MA the Order requires a written description of the development, a plan indicating the site and showing the proposed development, the developer's contact details and the fee, plus the evidence and assessments relevant to each of the specified matters.

In practice that means a floor plan set showing every habitable room with its window area and outlook, a daylight note or calculation addressing the natural light condition, a transport and parking statement, a Phase 1 desk study where the previous use suggests contamination, a flood risk position, and a noise assessment where the building shares a party wall with a kitchen, a plant room or a late-opening unit. Councils will not invalidate for policy documents you have not supplied, but they will refuse where a specified matter is unevidenced, and a refusal for absent evidence is the most avoidable outcome in the whole process.

The natural light condition catches more schemes than any other. Rooms lit only by a rooflight over a deep plan, bedrooms borrowing light through a living space, and lightwells that were never designed for habitable use are all common in converted upper floors of shops. Deal with it on the drawings before you apply.

The 56-day clock and what it is worth

For Class MA the authority has 56 days from receipt of a valid application. Development must not begin before the authority gives prior approval, notifies the developer that prior approval is not required, or the 56 days expire without any notification. That third limb is a deemed approval, and it has real value on a programme.

It also has a trap. The clock runs from a valid application, so an authority that writes on day 40 to say the fee was short or the plans were missing has arguably never started it. Pay by the method the council specifies, keep the receipt, and follow up in writing within a week of submission to confirm validation. Then diarise day 56.

Deemed approval leaves you with permission subject to the conditions in the Order rather than a decision notice. Lenders and buyers ask for documentary comfort, so retain the submission, the validation acknowledgement, proof of the fee and evidence that no notification was received.

What a refusal costs you

A refusal of prior approval can be appealed to the Planning Inspectorate under section 78, and written representations are the normal procedure. Budget for the appeal taking several months, which on a conversion funded by short-term debt is usually more expensive than the professional fees.

The alternative is to resubmit with the deficiency fixed. Do not assume the fee concession for a further application applies; the exemption in the Fees Regulations is drawn narrowly, and whether it reaches a prior approval application is worth confirming with the authority before you rely on it. The wider cost of getting a submission wrong is set out in our note on the real cost of an invalid planning application.

When a full application is better value

Prior approval costs less and moves faster, but it is rigid. A full application for change of use is worth the extra fee where any of the following applies.

1. The scheme needs external alterations beyond what Part 3 permits, such as new window openings, a rear extension or a dormer, since those need permission anyway and two consents cost more than one.
2. The floorspace exceeds the Class MA cap, or the building fails the vacancy or two-year use conditions.
3. The site is on excluded land, including a listed building, a scheduled monument or land within the categories the class carves out.
4. You want a decision that addresses design and layout, because a purchaser or funder is uncomfortable with a deemed approval.
5. The scheme creates more units than the light and amenity constraints of the existing shell can support, and a full application allows the internal arrangement to be argued on its merits.

A Planning Statement is worth preparing either way. On the prior approval route it keeps the specified matters organised and cross-referenced to the evidence, which makes the officer's job quick.

Budgeting a conversion

Illustrative example. A vacant first and second floor above a shop, 340 m², proposed as six flats under Class MA. The application fee is a single flat charge. Against it sit a measured survey, a daylight assessment, a Phase 1 desk study because the ground floor was a dry cleaner, a noise assessment against the retail plant, a transport and cycle parking note and the drawing package. On that scheme the professional fees are several multiples of the application fee, which is the normal shape of a Class MA budget. The levy is the other item to test early, because a building that has not been in lawful use for six continuous months in the three years ending on the day permission first permits development cannot set its existing floorspace against the chargeable amount. The three-month vacancy the class requires and the six-month use the levy tests are different periods, and the interaction is set out in our note on reading a CIL liability notice. These figures are illustrative rather than taken from a real scheme.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it, and confirm every fee against the current schedule on the day of submission.

See PlanScope pricing if you want a draft Planning Statement or supporting note for a prior approval submission at a fixed cost per report.