Temporary site huts and compounds during construction

A temporary site compound is permitted development under Part 4 Class A of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, but the right is narrower than most contractors assume. It covers buildings, moveable structures, works, plant and machinery required temporarily in connection with operations being carried out on that land or on adjoining land, and only for the duration of those operations. Three conditions do the real work. The operations must already have permission where permission is needed, everything must come off at the end, and the land must go back to its previous condition.

What the temporary building right permits

The class is deliberately broad on what can go on the land. Site huts, welfare units, drying rooms, a site office, secure containers, fuel stores, a concrete batching plant, a tower crane base, temporary hard standing and the hoarding that encloses it all fall within "buildings, moveable structures, works, plant or machinery" where they are required temporarily for the works.

It is deliberately narrow on why. Everything on the compound has to be required in connection with the operations. That link is the test an enforcement officer applies, and it is the one that catches the extras.

A marketing suite is the clearest example. A show home or sales cabin is there to sell the development, not to build it, and authorities generally treat it as needing its own permission, usually time-limited. The same reasoning catches a plant hire yard operated from the compound for other sites, and storage of materials for a job somewhere else.

Workers staying overnight raise a separate point. Caravans on a building or engineering site occupied by people employed in connection with the works sit within an exemption in Schedule 1 to the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, which removes the site licensing requirement, and the planning position follows the Part 4 analysis.

The requirement that it relates to permitted works

Class A is parasitic. It permits the compound because of the operations, so if the operations are unlawful the compound is unlawful too.

In practice that means you cannot put the compound up before permission is granted. Clearing a field, laying a stone pad and craning in site cabins while the application is still undetermined is a breach, and it is one that authorities act on because it is visible from the road and because neighbours report it.

Two qualifications are worth knowing. Where the operations are themselves permitted development, the compound is covered without any permission at the front end. And where the main permission has been granted but a pre-start condition has not been discharged, the position is messy enough that the safe course is to discharge the condition first. Mining operations are excluded from the class entirely.

Enabling works are the grey area. Site investigation boreholes, an access formed under a highway agreement, vegetation clearance outside bird nesting season. Each may or may not be development in its own right, and treating them as the trigger for a compound is an argument rather than a certainty.

Land within or adjoining the site

The class covers land where the operations are being carried out and land adjoining it. That phrase is more generous than it first looks and less generous than a project manager wants.

Adjoining means sharing a boundary. A field on the other side of a lane is not adjoining, and a plot two parcels away is certainly not. Where the compound sits on separated land, Class A does not help and a temporary planning permission is the route.

The second limitation is the ownership and notice question, which is separate from the permitted development analysis. Using adjoining land needs the owner's agreement whatever the Order says, and where you later need a temporary permission for that land you will be serving notice on them under the ownership certificate rules.

Removal and reinstatement when the works finish

The condition attached to Class A requires the buildings, structures, works, plant and machinery to be removed when the operations are completed, and the land to be reinstated to its condition before the development took place, unless the authority agrees otherwise.

Reinstatement is the part that costs money and gets forgotten. A compound on a grass field with a 300mm stone pad, a geotextile and a concrete slab under the welfare units leaves a surface that has to come out, and the topsoil has to go back. Allow for it in the programme and in the cost plan, and photograph the land before anything arrives so there is a record of the condition to be restored.

Where the compound area will form part of the finished development, say so in the construction management information and get the authority's written agreement that reinstatement is not required for that part. Relying on an assumption here is how a final certificate gets held up.

Soil handling during reinstatement matters where the site has a biodiversity gain condition, because compacted subsoil will not deliver the habitat the metric assumed.

Compounds on third party land

Compounds on land that is neither the site nor adjoining it need a temporary planning permission, and the application is straightforward but not instant.

Expect the authority to want the duration stated, the hours of operation, the access route, wheel washing, lighting, the position of fuel and material storage, the acoustic treatment of any generator, and a reinstatement scheme. Expect it to be determined in the usual eight weeks, which means applying four months before the compound is needed rather than four weeks.

Agricultural land raises an extra point. A compound on a field reduces the land available for cropping and, where the land is of the better grades, a long compound period attracts comment on the loss of agricultural production. That is a weighing exercise rather than a bar, and the answer is usually duration plus a soil management plan.

Hoardings, scaffolding and cranes

Three consents sit outside the planning system entirely and catch projects at the last minute.

Hoardings and scaffolding on or over the public highway need a licence from the highway authority under the Highways Act 1980, applied for separately and often charged weekly. Excavations in the highway, including for a new connection, need their own consent under the same Act.

Advertisements on the hoarding are controlled by the advertisement regulations, which give deemed consent for certain advertisements on hoardings enclosing building sites within stated limits. A full-height printed graphic with branding may exceed those limits, so check the class before the print order goes out.

Crane oversailing is a civil matter rather than a planning one. A jib that swings over neighbouring land without an oversailing licence is a trespass, and an injunction stops a site faster than any planning enforcement notice.

Where a separate application is needed

Four scenarios reliably fall outside Class A, and all four are better dealt with at the main application stage than afterwards.

1. A compound or site office on non-adjoining land.
2. A marketing suite, show home or sales cabin.
3. Any compound structure that stays beyond practical completion.
4. A compound used for purposes beyond the permitted operations, including other contracts.

The practical route is to deal with the compound in the information submitted with the main application. A Construction Management Plan should show the compound position, the storage and welfare layout, hoarding lines, lighting and the reinstatement proposals, and a Construction Traffic Management Plan should cover routeing, delivery hours, wheel washing and parking for operatives. Authorities frequently require both by condition before work starts, so submitting them up front saves the delay.

Where a temporary permission is needed for separated land, a short Planning Statement covering duration, need, impacts and reinstatement is usually enough. The report types index shows what else a construction phase can trigger, including noise and air quality work on sensitive sites. Enter the postcode on PlanScope to see the constraints around a proposed compound before you commit to it.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. 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.