Temporary buildings and plant during construction

Site cabins, welfare units, storage containers, tower cranes, concrete batching plant and hoardings are all permitted development under Class A of Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015, provided they are required temporarily in connection with operations being carried out on that land or on land adjoining it. The right is wide, and it is conditional on two things most site teams overlook: the underlying operations must themselves be lawful, and everything has to come off the land when the work finishes.

Read the class in full before you assume it covers a compound, because two common arrangements sit outside it. A compound on land that does not adjoin the construction site is not permitted development. Neither is a marketing suite, because selling houses is not an operation being carried out on the land.

What Class A actually permits

The wording covers the provision on land of buildings, moveable structures, works, plant or machinery required temporarily in connection with and for the duration of operations being carried out, or to be carried out, on that land or on land adjoining that land.

Four points follow from that sentence.

• It covers buildings as well as plant, so a two-storey modular office block is within the class if it is needed for the works.
• It covers land adjoining the site, which is what makes a compound in the field next door lawful without permission, provided the ownership or a licence is in place.
• The words "to be carried out" mean the compound can be established before the main operations begin. There is no requirement to have broken ground first.
• There is no size limit, no height limit and no separation distance in the class itself.

Class A does not permit anything in connection with mining operations, and it does not apply where planning permission is required for the underlying operations but has not been granted or deemed to be granted. That second restriction is the one to check first.

The link to lawful operations

The class is parasitic on the main development. If the operations themselves need planning permission and that permission has not been granted, the compound is unlawful from day one, whatever its size.

Three situations to watch:

1. An enabling works package started before permission is issued. Site clearance, fencing and a welfare compound are not covered by Class A until the permission for the main operations exists or is deemed to exist.
2. Operations relying on a prior approval, where the prior approval has been applied for but not yet issued. Permission is deemed to be granted only once the prior approval process concludes, so a compound put up in the meantime is exposed. Our note on the structural works test in a Class Q barn conversion shows how tight that sequencing can be.
3. Works that are not development at all, such as internal alterations. Here no permission is required, so Class A applies without difficulty.

Article 3(4) of the Order adds a further limit that catches more schemes than the class itself. Permitted development rights do not authorise development that contravenes a condition on an existing planning permission. Where the permission for the main scheme contains a condition requiring the site set-up, compound location or construction hours to be approved in writing, the compound has to follow the approved details even though Class A would otherwise permit it.

The removal obligation

Class A carries one condition and it is absolute. As soon as reasonably practicable after the operations are completed, the developer must remove the buildings, structures, works, plant and machinery, and reinstate the land to its condition before the development took place, unless the local planning authority has agreed otherwise in writing.

In practice this means:

• Write the removal into the contract programme and the final account, not into a snagging list.
• Get any agreement to retain something, such as an access track or a hardstanding, in writing before practical completion rather than after.
• Remember that reinstatement can be more onerous than removal, particularly on agricultural land where the topsoil profile has been stripped and stored.

A compound left standing after completion is unauthorised development from that point. Time limits for enforcement against operational development in England were extended to ten years by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, so the old assumption that a forgotten container becomes lawful after four years no longer holds. Check the current commencement position before relying on any immunity argument.

Off-site compounds

Land that does not adjoin the site falls outside Class A entirely. A compound half a mile away, across a road from a non-adjoining field, or on a separate parcel reached by a third party track, needs its own permission.

Two routes exist. A temporary planning permission for the use of the land as a construction compound, usually granted for a stated period tied to the main scheme, is the clean answer and the one highway authorities prefer because it lets them condition access and wheel washing. The alternative is Class B of Part 4, which permits the temporary use of land for any purpose for not more than 28 days in any calendar year, subject to its own exclusions, and which does not permit the erection of buildings. For a compound needed for eighteen months, that is no help.

Where the compound serves a scheme with a construction traffic condition, the same application should deal with the routeing, and a Construction Traffic Management Plan is normally the document that discharges it.

Hoardings, cranes and lighting

Hoardings around a site are works within Class A, so no planning permission is needed for the hoarding itself. Advertisements displayed on it are controlled separately under the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007, which give deemed consent to certain classes of site hoarding advertisement subject to size and illumination limits. Read the relevant class in Schedule 3 before printing anything large.

Tower cranes are plant within Class A. Two things sit outside planning: oversailing a neighbour's airspace is a civil matter requiring a licence from that owner, and a crane within an aerodrome safeguarding area or a defence safeguarding zone triggers a separate notification to the safeguarding authority. Sites in those areas are mapped, and the consultation is best started before the crane is ordered.

Site lighting on temporary masts is also plant. Planning conditions on hours and lux levels are common where the site adjoins housing, and light from premises can be a statutory nuisance under Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 independently of planning. Aim the mitigation at spill and glare in the direction of habitable windows, and record it in the Construction Management Plan.

Contractor accommodation

Overnight accommodation for workers is the grey area. Welfare facilities, drying rooms, canteens and site offices are plainly required in connection with the operations. Sleeping accommodation is less obviously so, and a council may take the view that residential use of a compound is a separate use needing permission, particularly in a rural area or on a green field site.

Where a project needs on-site accommodation, apply for a temporary permission and be specific about occupancy, duration and the removal date. The alternative is an enforcement argument halfway through the build.

Documenting the compound in the submission

Even where Class A covers everything, put the compound on the drawings. Officers and neighbours who can see the arrangement object less, and conditions get drafted to match reality.

The reinstatement note is the one nobody writes and the one that settles the argument two years later. A dated photographic survey of the compound area before occupation costs almost nothing and gives you the baseline the condition refers to.

Where the compound and the main scheme go in together, the reasoning belongs in the Planning Statement rather than in a separate document, so the officer reads it once.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Permitted development rights turn on the precise wording of the Order and on conditions attached to existing permissions, and a Lawful Development Certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional.

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