Retail to residential after Class M and Class MA

For a typical high street shop, the prior approval route to flats is now Class MA, not Class M. The 2020 use class changes moved most shops into Class E commercial, business and service use, and Class MA is the right that converts Class E buildings to dwellings. Class M survives for a narrower set of specified uses that sit outside Class E, and because Part 3 has been amended repeatedly you should read the Order as currently in force rather than relying on any summary of it.

The route matters because the conditions differ. Class MA requires two years of continuous Class E use, applies no floorspace cap since March 2024, and brings natural light and space standard requirements with it.

The routes that existed and what changed

Before September 2020, shops were Class A1 and financial and professional services were Class A2. Class M of Schedule 2 Part 3 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permitted a limited change from those uses to dwellings, constrained by a cumulative floorspace limit that made it useful only for small units.

The 2020 amendments to the Use Classes Order folded shops, restaurants, financial services, gyms, clinics, nurseries and offices into a single Class E. Part 3 was then amended to match, with Class MA introduced in 2021 as the broad commercial to residential route, and Class M narrowed to specified uses that remained outside Class E.

So a shop unit that was A1 in 2019 is now Class E(a), and the question for a landlord is whether it has been in Class E use continuously for two years before the application, not whether it was ever A1. Older guides that describe a 150 square metre cap on shop to residential conversion are describing the position before these changes.

Which prior approval route applies now

Work through it in order.

If the unit is in Class E use and has been for at least two years, Class MA is the route. Check the exclusions: the right is disapplied for listed buildings and land within their curtilage, scheduled monuments, sites of special scientific interest, safety hazard areas and military explosives storage areas, and the Order lists further restrictions. Then check for an Article 4 direction, which many authorities have made over primary shopping frontages precisely to stop this.

If the unit is a sui generis use, such as a hot food takeaway, a betting office or a launderette, Class MA does not apply because those uses are outside Class E. Check the current text of Class M to see whether a prior approval route exists for that specific use, and if it does, read its own conditions and floorspace limits, which are not the same as those in Class MA.

If neither applies, you are making a full planning application, and that means the whole development plan is in play: town centre policy, housing mix, amenity standards, parking standards and design policy.

Where the building contains more than one unit, or where you intend to divide it, the unit structure affects the analysis. Splitting a larger unit before conversion raises its own questions, as our note on splitting one unit into two commercial premises sets out.

Shopfront treatment and frontage policy

Prior approval does not authorise external alterations. Class MA covers the change of use and works reasonably necessary for the conversion, which does not stretch to removing a shopfront and inserting a domestic window and front door.

That means two applications in most cases: the prior approval for the use, and a planning application for the external works. Submit them together rather than sequentially, because the authority will assess the frontage against its design and conservation policies and the answer affects whether the scheme works at all.

What officers object to is a residential frontage that reads as a converted shop: a stub of stallriser left in place, a door where the shop door was, a window with the proportions of a display window and net curtains behind it. The alternatives that get approved keep the architectural rhythm of the parade, with a properly proportioned window, a recessed or side entrance where the plan allows, and the pilasters and fascia retained or reinstated rather than removed.

In a conservation area the shopfront is usually part of what makes the area special, and the loss of a historic shopfront is heritage harm that needs justification under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 duties. Where the building is in a conservation area, the authority can also consider the impact of the loss of the ground floor use as part of the prior approval itself.

Amenity, daylight and outlook for the new homes

Shop units are the wrong shape for flats. They are deep, they have one window wall, and the rear third of the unit frequently has no natural light at all.

Every habitable room in a Part 3 residential conversion must have adequate natural light, and the authority must refuse prior approval where the plans do not demonstrate it. A bedroom at the back of a deep unit, lit by a rooflight over a corridor or by a borrowed light, will not pass. The design responses are a rear lightwell, a rear extension with glazing, relocating bedrooms to the frontage with the living space behind, or reducing the unit count so each dwelling reaches daylight.

New dwellings created under Part 3 must also meet the nationally described space standard. Annotate every unit with its gross internal area and bed space count on the plans.

Outlook and privacy then follow. A ground floor flat whose living room window faces directly onto a pavement with pedestrians a metre away needs a design answer, usually a raised cill, a planted threshold or a set-back. Where a neighbouring unit is a hot food takeaway or has commercial extraction, noise and odour affecting the intended occupiers is one of the matters the authority considers, and the detail of the neighbouring system is relevant, as covered in our note on the ventilation and extraction statement.

Refuse, cycle and parking provision

These are the practical items that get prior approval applications refused on transport grounds, and they are easy to resolve on paper before submission.

Refuse storage for the new flats has to be within the site, screened, sized to the collection authority's container allocation, and within a reasonable carry distance of the highway. A town centre unit with no rear access and no front curtilage is a genuine problem, and the answer is usually an internal bin store with a defined presentation arrangement rather than pretending the issue away.

Cycle parking needs to be secure, covered and accessible without carrying a bicycle through a living room. An internal ground floor store works where the plan allows it.

Car parking is usually the easiest point, because a town centre location with good accessibility supports car-free or low-car development, and the existing retail unit generated its own trips. Where the authority queries it, a short transport statement comparing the trip generation of the existing lawful retail use with the proposed residential use will normally settle it, and the comparison is often favourable.

Town centre vitality policies

This is where a full application differs sharply from prior approval.

Under prior approval, the authority can only consider the listed matters, and general town centre policy is not among them except through the conservation area ground floor point. Under a full application, the development plan applies, and most authorities have policies resisting the loss of retail frontage within a defined primary shopping area, sometimes with a vacancy marketing requirement attached.

If you are making a full application, prepare for that policy directly. Evidence the marketing history of the unit, the local vacancy rate from a dated frontage survey you can describe, the condition and configuration of the unit, and the position of the unit within the frontage, since a unit at the end of a parade carries less vitality weight than one in the middle. A planning statement that addresses the frontage policy head on, with evidence, is what the officer needs.

Evidence pack for prior approval

For a Class MA application, assemble seven items.

1. Evidence of continuous Class E use for at least two years, through rates records, leases, utility accounts and trading documents.
2. Existing and proposed floor plans, with every unit annotated with its gross internal area and bed space count.
3. A daylight note showing adequate natural light to every habitable room.
4. A flood risk assessment where the site is in Flood Zone 2 or 3.
5. A desk study where the previous use or the neighbouring history suggests contamination.
6. A noise assessment where commercial premises adjoin.
7. A refuse and cycle storage plan.

Run the separate planning application for the shopfront and any rear extension alongside it, with elevations at a readable scale and a note on the heritage position where the building is in a conservation area.

Illustrative example: a 95 square metre former hardware shop in a secondary parade, 14 metres deep, with a rear yard. The scheme that worked was a single two-bedroom flat rather than two one-bedroom flats, with the living space to the front, both bedrooms served by a rear lightwell, bins in an internal store, and a reinstated timber shopfront with a domestic window set behind the original pilasters. The example is illustrative.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a shop to residential conversion is likely to need.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Permitted development rights change frequently, and a lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful, so 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.