Sui generis use: what falls outside the Use Classes Order

A sui generis use is one that does not sit in any class of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987. The Latin means "of its own kind", and the planning consequence is blunt: because the use has no class, there is no class to move around within, and almost every change into or out of it needs planning permission.

That single feature is why sui generis status matters so much to a business. A pub, a hot food takeaway, a nightclub, a petrol filling station and a taxi office are all sui generis, and none of them can become anything else without an application. If you are buying a lease on one of them, the flexibility you think you are getting may not exist.

What it means for a use to fall outside the Order

Section 55(2)(f) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, read with article 3(1) of the Use Classes Order, provides that a change of use within the same class is not development. That is the whole benefit of being in a class. A shop can become a gym, a nursery, a dental practice or an office because all of those sit in Class E, and moving between them is not development at all.

A sui generis use gets none of that. Every material change of use to or from it is development, and development needs permission unless a specific permitted development right says otherwise.

The 2020 amendments made this more consequential than it used to be. The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 took effect on 1 September 2020, collapsed the old A1, A2, A3, B1 and D1 uses into the new Classes E, F1 and F2, and pushed several formerly classified uses out into sui generis. Premises lawfully used as a pub on 31 August 2020 did not stay in a class. They became sui generis the next day.

The uses expressly made sui generis

Article 3(6) of the Order names uses that are excluded from every class. The list includes:

• Drinking establishments, and drinking establishments with expanded food provision.
• Hot food takeaways, meaning the sale of hot food principally for consumption off the premises.
• Cinemas, concert halls, bingo halls and dance halls.
• Live music venues.
• Theatres, nightclubs, casinos and betting offices.
• Amusement arcades and centres, and funfairs.
• Launderettes.
• Petrol filling stations, and the sale or display of motor vehicles.
• Taxi businesses and the hire of motor vehicles.
• Scrap yards, and yards for the storage or distribution of minerals or the breaking of motor vehicles.
• Hostels.
• Waste disposal installations, retail warehouse clubs, and alkali works.

Read the current consolidated text before relying on any list, including this one, because article 3(6) has been amended repeatedly and the position on 1 September 2020 differs from the position before it.

Uses that are sui generis by omission

The second route into sui generis status is quieter. A use that no class describes is sui generis whether or not anyone has named it, and new business models arrive faster than the Order is amended.

A vehicle hand car wash on a former forecourt, a dog day care operation, a builders' yard that is neither general industrial nor pure storage, a livery yard, a crematorium, a self-storage site with trade counter activity: each of these has to be assessed against the class definitions on its facts, and each can end up outside them.

The test is what the actual activity is, not what the business calls itself. A "café" that sells predominantly hot food for consumption off the premises is a hot food takeaway. A "studio" whose activity is retail is Class E(a). Councils look at floor area splits, staffing, opening hours, seating and turnover, and they are entitled to.

Where the classification is arguable, the way to settle it is a Lawful Development Certificate under section 191 or 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which produces a determination rather than an opinion.

Why there are no change of use rights

The permitted development rights in Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO 2015 are drafted class by class, and the general pattern grants movement out of classified uses rather than out of sui generis ones.

There are targeted exceptions. Part 3 contains specific rights allowing certain named sui generis uses, including betting offices, pay day loan shops, launderettes and hot food takeaways, to change to residential use subject to prior approval. Those are narrow grants with their own conditions and limitations, and they do not create a general freedom. Check the exact class text for the use you have, because a right that exists for a betting office does not exist for a nightclub.

Going the other way is even tighter. Moving from a use class into a sui generis use is always a material change of use requiring permission: Class E restaurant to hot food takeaway, Class E retail to drinking establishment, Class F1 hall to nightclub. No exceptions worth planning around.

Moving from sui generis into a use class

This is the change most operators want, usually because a pub or a takeaway is being converted to something with better trading prospects.

It is an ordinary planning application, and it is judged against the development plan. Three policy themes decide most of them, and they are set out in the adopted policies you can identify through the development plan:

1. Protection of the existing use. Many authorities have policies resisting the loss of public houses, community facilities and cultural venues, often requiring marketing evidence over a stated period before a change is acceptable.
2. The acceptability of what replaces it, on parking, servicing, amenity and town centre policy.
3. Any heritage or character constraint attaching to the building, which is common for public houses.

The supporting documents follow from those themes rather than from the building. Marketing evidence, a viability position, amenity information and a policy assessment usually do more work than drawings. PlanScope can draft the supporting documents for that application, structured to the policies in the adopted plan, for review before submission.

Conditions that tie a permission to one use

A permission for a sui generis use frequently carries a condition restricting occupation to that use and nothing else. Where the condition is clearly worded, it can exclude reliance on rights that the Order or the GPDO would otherwise give, and the courts have required clear words before accepting that effect.

Read the condition literally. A condition permitting use "as a hot food takeaway only" prevents a change to a restaurant without a further application. A condition requiring the premises to be used "for purposes within Class E and for no other purpose" removes the class freedom entirely.

Varying such a condition is a section 73 application, not a non-material amendment, because the change alters what is permitted. The limits of the lighter-touch route are set out in section 96A non-material amendments.

An illustrative takeaway and drinking establishment

This example is illustrative. A unit in a small parade has been a sandwich shop for years, sitting comfortably in Class E(b). The operator wants to fit a fryer and extraction and trade until 11pm selling hot food to take away.

That is a change from Class E to a sui generis hot food takeaway and needs planning permission. The application will turn on odour control, noise from the extraction plant and from customers, litter, parking and opening hours, with a ventilation and extraction scheme and often an odour assessment forming the technical core.

Next door, a closed pub is sui generis in its own right. Turning it into a shop or a gym is also a change of use application, and in many districts the adopted plan requires marketing evidence over a defined period before the loss of the public house is accepted. Neither unit can move sideways into the other's use without applying.

Sui generis is not a penalty. It is simply the absence of a shortcut, and the earlier in a deal it is identified the less it costs to resolve.

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.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a change of use application on your premises is likely to need.