Shepherd's huts, pods and mobile structures in a garden

A shepherd's hut, pod or caravan in a back garden can be entirely lawful without any permission, and it can also be the thing that attracts an enforcement notice. Which of the two it is turns on two questions in sequence: whether putting it there is development at all under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and if it is, whether the outbuilding right in Class E of the General Permitted Development Order covers it. Occupation is the pivot. A hut used by the household as an extra room is a different proposition from one someone lives in or rents out.

Get the order of those questions wrong and the answer comes out wrong. Plenty of suppliers advertise structures as needing no permission, which is true of the structure and says nothing about the use.

Whether stationing it is development at all

Section 55 defines development as building, engineering, mining or other operations, or a material change in the use of land. A truly mobile structure wheeled onto a lawn involves no building operation, so the only route to development is a material change of use.

That is why a touring caravan parked on a drive needs nothing. The use of the garden has not changed, and nothing has been built. The moment the structure is put on a base, connected to drainage and left in place indefinitely, the analysis shifts.

When a structure becomes a building

The tests come from rating and planning case law rather than from the statute, and the leading formulation in Cardiff Rating Authority v Guest Keen Baldwins Iron and Steel Co Ltd (1949) looks at three things: size, degree of permanence, and physical attachment to the ground.

No single factor decides it. A large structure that cannot realistically be moved once sited will usually be a building even on wheels. A small pod on skids, moved around a garden and removable by two people, usually will not.

What tips the balance in practice is the servicing. Foul drainage into the house system, a buried electricity supply and a concrete pad together make a strong case for permanence, whatever the brochure says about mobility. Decking built around the structure does the same.

Where it is a building, Class E of Schedule 2 Part 1 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 may still permit it.

The outbuilding right and its limits

Class E permits buildings and enclosures within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse required for a purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse. The main limits are familiar and worth checking against the actual hut rather than against a memory of the rules.

On designated land, including conservation areas and National Landscapes, the right is narrower. A structure to the side of the house is excluded, and anything more than 20 metres from the rear wall is limited to 10 m². Where an Article 4 direction has removed Class E, the right is gone entirely, and in those areas a hut needs an application like any other outbuilding. The coverage limit is set out in more detail in our note on the 50 per cent curtilage rule.

Note that listed building consent is a separate matter and is not affected by permitted development rights. A hut in the curtilage of a listed building may need consent in its own right.

Why incidental use is the whole question

The word doing the work in Class E is "incidental". A home office, a gym, a hobby room, a store, a studio: all comfortably incidental to enjoying the house. Sleeping accommodation is harder, because sleeping is a primary residential activity rather than an incidental one.

In practice councils accept occasional guest use by the household. What they do not accept is independent living. Once the hut has its own kitchen, its own bathroom and someone living in it separately from the main house, the realistic reading is a new dwelling, which is a material change of use and needs planning permission. Our note on garden offices and the separate planning unit problem sets out how that boundary is drawn and why it matters for rights over the rest of the garden.

Annexe use sits awkwardly in the middle. A dependent relative living in a garden structure, sharing the main house's facilities and with no separate access or curtilage, is often treated as still part of the single dwelling. Separate utilities, a fenced off area and a separate address push the other way.

Holiday letting from a garden structure

Letting a hut to paying guests is a change in the character of the use of the land, and on most residential plots it will be a material change of use requiring permission. The council will look at the intensity of coming and going, parking, and the effect on neighbours rather than at the structure.

Policy on short term letting has been subject to proposals for a separate use class and a registration scheme. As at October 2026 the position should be checked against the current rules for the area before a letting business is started, because some areas have introduced local controls.

An illustrative example

This example is illustrative. A couple put a 7m by 3m shepherd's hut on a gravel pad at the bottom of a 40 metre garden, 25 metres from the back of the house, outside any designated area. It has power from a buried cable, a composting lavatory and no mains drainage. One of them works in it four days a week.

That is almost certainly lawful. The hut is arguably a building, but it sits inside Class E on height, position and coverage, and a home office is incidental use.

Change one fact and the answer changes. If the garden were in a conservation area, the hut at 25 metres from the rear wall would exceed the 10 m² limit for that zone and the right would not apply. If their adult son moved in permanently with a kitchenette, the use would be the problem rather than the building.

Stationing a caravan rather than a building

A caravan used within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse, incidentally to the enjoyment of that dwellinghouse, is exempt from site licensing under Schedule 1 to the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960. That exemption covers the licensing regime, not planning. The planning question remains whether the use of the land has materially changed.

Storing a touring caravan is normally fine. Living in it while the house is rebuilt usually needs a temporary permission, and councils grant those routinely with a condition tying occupation to the building works.

Evidence that the use stays incidental

Keep the record that would answer an enforcement officer's questions before anyone asks them.

• Photographs and a dated plan showing position, height and distance from boundaries.
• The specification confirming single storey construction and roof type.
• A simple curtilage calculation showing coverage stays under half.
• Evidence of how the hut is serviced, including whether there is any foul connection.
• Nothing that reads as a separate household: one address, one council tax account, shared bathroom and kitchen facilities.

Where the position is arguable and the money at stake is real, a certificate of lawfulness for proposed use or development under section 192 of the 1990 Act settles it before construction. A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works or a use are lawful, and it costs a fraction of removing a structure later. A short Planning Statement explaining the incidental use and the Class E compliance is usually all that application needs.

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.