Retirement villages and the C2 to C3 boundary

Whether a retirement village is Class C2 or Class C3 decides how much affordable housing the scheme carries, what levy is payable, and whether the national space standard applies. That is why the argument is had at all. There is no bright line in the Use Classes Order, the answer turns on fact and degree, and the same building form has been found to be C2 on one site and C3 on another because the care model differed.

The developers who win the argument describe the operation precisely and early. The ones who lose it describe the building.

What the order says

Class C2, residential institutions, covers use for the provision of residential accommodation and care to people in need of care, other than a use within Class C3. It also covers hospitals, nursing homes and residential schools.

Class C3, dwellinghouses, covers use as a dwellinghouse by a single person or by people living together as a family, and by small groups of up to six residents living together as a single household, including where care is provided.

Two phrases do the work. "Care" is defined in the order as personal care for people in need of it by reason of old age, disablement, dependence on alcohol or drugs, or mental disorder. And "people in need of care" means the residents have to need it, not merely have it available.

So the question is not whether a scheme has a care team. It is whether the accommodation is provided to people who need care, with care, as a single integrated operation.

The factors that point towards C2

Case officers and inspectors work through a familiar list. None of these is decisive on its own, and the balance of them usually is.

• residents are assessed as needing care before admission, and admission is refused to those who do not
• a minimum care package is contracted with every resident, with a stated number of hours per week
• care staff are on site around the clock, with a registered manager
• the operator is registered with the care regulator for the provision of personal care at that location
• meals, laundry, housekeeping and activities are provided as part of the package rather than bought separately
• communal facilities are substantial relative to the private accommodation, and are used daily
• units are not fully self-contained, or are smaller than general needs housing with limited kitchen provision
• occupancy is by licence or by a tenancy tied to the care contract, rather than by long leasehold sale

The reverse pattern points to C3. Open market sale on 125 year leases, fully self-contained two bedroom flats with full kitchens, an optional care package bought by the resident, and a concierge rather than a care team, is an age-restricted housing scheme whatever the marketing brochure calls it.

Independent living with communal facilities

Most schemes are somewhere in between, and that is where the disputes are.

Extra care housing typically offers self-contained flats with a restaurant, a hairdresser, communal lounges, a wellbeing suite and a care team based on site. Residents hold leases. Some need substantial care, others need very little when they move in and more later.

Inspectors have accepted C2 for schemes of that kind where the care is integral and mandatory, and have found C3 where the care is optional in substance and the units function as ordinary flats. Appeal decisions are indicative of how inspectors have approached the question rather than binding precedent, and the pattern across them is consistent on one point. The compulsion and the minimum level of the care package matter more than the floor plan.

What follows for affordable housing and the levy

This is the commercial reason the classification matters.

Many local plans set the affordable housing requirement by reference to dwellings, and C2 accommodation is not dwellings. Authorities respond in different ways: some apply the policy to C2 anyway, some apply a reduced requirement, some convert C2 bedspaces into dwelling equivalents using a formula. Read the adopted policy before assuming either outcome, and expect the authority to ask for an Affordable Housing Statement setting out your position with reasoning rather than an assertion.

The Community Infrastructure Levy follows the charging schedule, and most schedules set different rates for residential and institutional floorspace. Communal areas in a C2 scheme count towards gross internal area, which can produce a larger chargeable area than developers expect even at a lower rate. Check the schedule and model both scenarios.

The nationally described space standard applies to C3 dwellings where a local plan has adopted it. It does not apply to C2 accommodation, which is one reason C2 schemes can plan smaller units.

Education contributions are rarely sought from C2. Health and social infrastructure contributions sometimes are, and a Social Infrastructure Assessment can set out the demand the scheme generates and what it provides on site.

Occupancy conditions

Where the authority grants C2, expect a condition restricting occupation. The common forms limit occupation to people over a stated age who are in need of care, require a minimum care package to be contracted, and sometimes require the care provider to remain registered.

Draft these carefully, because they bind the operator for the life of the permission. Conditions that specify a named operator are poor practice and difficult to enforce. Conditions that specify the care model and the minimum package are enforceable and survive a change of operator.

Where the scheme is C3 with an age restriction, the condition usually limits occupation to people over a given age, with provision for a surviving partner. That is a different condition doing a different job, and mixing the two produces something unworkable.

The evidence to submit

A care statement is the document that decides these applications, and it is frequently the thinnest thing in the pack. It should set out the care model, the minimum package in hours, the admission criteria and assessment process, the staffing establishment with a rota, the registration position with the care regulator, and the schedule of communal facilities with their areas.

Put the same material into the Planning Statement and address the classification head on, with the factors and your reasoning. National guidance on housing for older and disabled people recognises the range of models and expects plans to address them, which gives you a policy hook.

Describe the operation in the application description too. "Extra care housing (Class C2)" with the care model summarised is harder to argue with than "retirement living apartments". Boundary questions of this kind recur across the order, and our note on health uses in a residential street covers another version of the same problem.

An illustrative case: a 72 unit scheme marketed as independent living, submitted as C2, with an optional care package and no needs assessment on admission. The officer recommended C3, the affordable housing requirement applied, and the scheme failed on viability. Resubmitted with a contracted minimum of two hours of care per resident per week, admission subject to assessment, and a reduced number of larger communal spaces, it was accepted as C2. The building barely changed.

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