Temporary use of buildings and land for film making
Class BA of the GPDO lets a site be used temporarily for film making without a planning application. The limits, the exclusions, the notice to the council and the duty to reinstate.
Film making permitted development in England sits in Class BA of Part 4, Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015. It allows a building or land to be used temporarily for film-making purposes, together with the temporary structures, works, plant and machinery that go with it, without a planning application. The right is generous by permitted development standards and hedged with limits that catch out production teams who assume a location is automatically usable.
Two numbers govern it. The use may run for up to nine months in any 27 month period, and the site must not exceed 1.5 hectares. Read the current text on legislation.gov.uk before you rely on either, because Part 4 has been amended more than once and the class you find in a printed copy may be out of date.
What the class permits
Class BA covers the use of the building or land for film making, and the provision on it of temporary structures, works, plant or machinery required in connection with that use. In practice that is the unit base, the technical vehicles, the cabins, the temporary sets, the lighting rigs and the generators.
It does not grant a change of use in any lasting sense. At the end of the nine months the lawful use reverts to whatever it was before, which matters when you are dealing with a landowner who hopes to establish a studio use by repetition. Repetition does not do it.
The right belongs to the land rather than to the production. Successive productions on the same site draw on the same nine month allowance within the same 27 month window, so the location agent needs to know what the site has already been used for. Ask, in writing, before you sign.
Land and buildings that are excluded
Class BA does not apply on a site of special scientific interest, on a scheduled monument, on a safety hazard area or a military explosives storage area, or on a listed building or land within its curtilage. Those exclusions are absolute and no amount of notification cures them.
Curtilage is where arguments start. A courtyard, a stable block or a walled garden attached to a listed house is very often within its curtilage even though it is not itself listed, and the same reasoning that decides curtilage questions in Class A cases applies here. If the location is a country house, assume the curtilage extends further than the immediate garden until someone has checked the list entry and the historic map evidence.
Article 4 directions can withdraw the right in a defined area. They are recorded on the planning data service and on the council's own mapping, and a direction made for a conservation area or a parkland setting will say which classes it removes.
Telling the council, and what the notice must contain
The right is conditional on notifying the local planning authority in writing before the use begins. The notice states the date the use will start, the date it will end and the area of the site.
Send it to the planning department rather than to the film office, and keep the acknowledgement. A production that starts a week early because the schedule moved has not complied with the condition, and development carried out otherwise than in accordance with a condition is not permitted development at all. That is an enforcement risk for the landowner long after the crew has gone.
Where you want certainty, apply for a lawful development certificate for proposed use under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. It costs half the equivalent planning application fee and it settles the question on paper. Location managers working on a long shoot in a sensitive area increasingly do this as a matter of routine.
Temporary structures and the duty to reinstate
The removal condition is the one that bites after the event. Any structure, works, plant or machinery provided under the class has to be removed when the use ends, and the land reinstated to its previous condition, within the period the class specifies. Build the reinstatement into the production budget and photograph the site before anything arrives.
Reinstatement means surfaces as well as structures. Hardcore laid for a unit base, track marks across a pasture and a temporary access formed through a hedge all have to be made good. A hedge is also protected in its own right during the bird nesting season, so a March arrival and an August departure are two different problems.
Listed buildings, conservation areas and the other consents
Using a listed building for filming does not itself need listed building consent, because use is not works. Anything that alters the building does. Fixing a dressing to a wall, removing a door, repainting a room, boxing in a fireplace or running cable through a sash window can all amount to alterations affecting special interest, and listed building consent is required for those regardless of how temporary the intention is.
Advertisement consent is a separate regime under the advertisement regulations, and a large temporary sign or a dressed shopfront may need it. Conservation area tree protection and any tree preservation order apply to cranes, tracking and root protection areas exactly as they would on a construction site.
When you need a planning application instead
Go for a full application where the use will exceed the class limits, where the site is bigger than 1.5 hectares, where the location falls in an excluded category, or where the production wants to leave something behind. Standing sets, a permanent backlot, a workshop building or a recurring studio use are all ordinary development requiring permission.
A Planning Statement is the document that carries the case, setting out the temporary nature of the use, the reversibility of the works and the economic benefit. Where the scheme involves night working, a Noise Impact Assessment prepared to BS 4142 and a Lighting Assessment referencing ILP GN01 are the two technical documents councils ask for most often, because those are the complaints that arrive.
Short of a full application, the prior approval route used by other parts of Schedule 2 works differently from the simple notification in Class BA, and it is worth understanding how prior approval actually works before you assume the two are the same thing.
What sits outside planning altogether
Road closures and parking suspensions are highway matters handled by the council's traffic team and the police, not by planning. Licensing may be engaged if the public is admitted. Statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 remains available to neighbours whatever the planning position, and an abatement notice can stop a night shoot that permitted development rights had otherwise made lawful.
Before you commit to a location, get three things in writing: the site area, the dates of any film use in the previous 27 months, and confirmation from the council that no Article 4 direction applies. If the shoot needs a full application instead, PlanScope can draft the Planning Statement and the supporting documents in minutes and flag the site facts it does not hold. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a site be used for filming under permitted development?
Class BA of Part 4 allows film-making use for up to nine months in any 27 month period, on a site of no more than 1.5 hectares. The allowance attaches to the land rather than to the production, so earlier shoots on the same site count towards it. Check the current text of the Order before relying on the figures.
Do I have to tell the council before filming starts?
Yes. The class is conditional on written notification to the local planning authority before the use begins, stating the start date, the end date and the site area. Send it to the planning department and keep the acknowledgement. Starting before the notified date means the condition has not been met, and the use is then not permitted development.
Can I film in a listed building under Class BA?
No. Listed buildings and land within their curtilage are excluded from the class, so the use needs planning permission. Separately, any physical alteration to a listed building for a shoot, including fixings, repainting and removing joinery, requires listed building consent in its own right however temporary the work is intended to be.
What has to be removed at the end of a shoot?
Every structure, work, plant and machinery provided under the class, with the land reinstated to its previous condition within the period the class specifies. That covers ground surfaces as well as buildings, so hardcore, temporary accesses and damaged hedgerows all have to be made good. Photograph the site before anything arrives.
When does filming need a full planning application?
When the use will run beyond the nine months allowed, when the site is larger than 1.5 hectares, when it falls in an excluded category such as a scheduled monument or a site of special scientific interest, or when anything is to be left in place afterwards. Standing sets and recurring studio use are ordinary development needing permission.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.