Temporary uses, meanwhile space and the risk of permanence

A temporary change of use planning arrangement is only temporary if somebody makes it end. Two routes exist in England: the day-limited rights in Schedule 2 Part 4 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, and a planning permission granted for a limited period by condition. Both look like a clean exit at the start. Both leave an occupier exposed if the paperwork, the reversion and the fit-out are not handled deliberately.

The risk is not that the temporary use is refused. It is that it quietly becomes the lawful use of the building, or that the previous use is lost.

Temporary rights and their day limits

Part 4 Class B permits the use of land for any purpose for a limited number of days in a calendar year, with a lower allowance for certain uses such as markets and motor sport, together with the provision of any moveable structure needed for that use. The day limits have been amended more than once in recent years, including temporary increases, so read the consolidated text rather than an old summary before relying on a number.

Three points decide whether the right helps you.

It applies to land, not to buildings. Using a vacant shop unit for a pop-up is a change of use of a building and Part 4 Class B does not authorise it.

The days are counted across the calendar year for the land in question, and they are cumulative across all temporary uses, not per operator. If the landowner has already used part of the allowance for something else, your event eats what is left.

And the right does not apply on some designated land or where an Article 4 direction has removed it. Check before booking.

Part 4 also contains other classes, including a right for temporary use in connection with film-making, each with its own conditions. Read the class that fits your use rather than assuming Class B covers everything.

Conditions imposing a temporary permission

The alternative is a full application for permission limited by condition to a period of years. National guidance discourages temporary permissions used simply to see how a use turns out, because a use that is acceptable should be permitted and one that is not should be refused. The proper reasons for a temporary grant are that the applicant has asked for one, or that there is a clear planning reason why the position will change, for example a site allocated for redevelopment.

If you want a temporary permission, ask for it and say why. A temporary grant imposed on an applicant who wanted a permanent one is a decision worth appealing, because the authority has to justify the limit.

Read the condition carefully when it arrives. The two things to check are the trigger for the period starting, which may be the date of the permission rather than the date you open, and what the condition requires at the end. Wording that requires the use to cease and the land to be restored to a specified condition is a real obligation with a real cost.

Why a temporary use can become lawful

Three mechanisms turn a temporary use permanent, and they catch people who assumed the clock was on their side.

The first is simple overrun. Carrying on beyond the permitted period is a breach of condition, and a breach of condition is enforceable. But enforcement time limits apply, and section 115 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 moved the limit for breaches in England to ten years, which took effect for breaches occurring on or after 25 April 2024. Ten years of unchallenged use is a long exposure for a council, but it is also ten years of risk for an occupier who cannot sell or refinance a building whose lawful use is uncertain.

The second is abandonment of the original use. Where the previous lawful use ceases for a long period, with physical alterations and no intention to resume, the courts have accepted that it can be abandoned, and it cannot then simply be resumed. Our note on proving a use has been abandoned sets out what the evidence has to show.

The third is drift. A meanwhile use that starts as a market and ends as a permanent food hall has changed in character, and the eventual lawful use is whatever has actually been happening, not what the original description said.

Reverting at the end of the period

Section 57(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the provision that makes reversion work. Where planning permission was granted for a limited period, the land may at the end of that period revert to the purpose for which it was normally used before the permission was granted, without a further permission being needed.

Two conditions sit behind that. The previous use has to have been lawful, and it has to still exist as a use that can be resumed rather than one that has been abandoned. Section 57(3) excludes reversion to a use begun in breach of planning control.

So the reversion route depends entirely on what was there before, which is why the evidence on the underlying use matters more than the paperwork on the temporary one.

Evidence of the underlying lawful use

Gather this at the start of the temporary arrangement, not at the end.

What to hold on file:

• The planning history for the unit, including any permission or certificate for the previous use
• Business rates records showing the use and its description
• Dated photographs of the unit as it was
• The previous tenant's lease and any licence for alterations
• Marketing particulars from the letting
• A measured plan of the layout before the fit-out

Where the underlying use is not documented, consider applying for a lawful development certificate for the existing use under section 191 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 before the temporary occupier moves in. It costs a fee and a few months, and it converts an argument into a decision.

Fit out works and their permanence

Works are where meanwhile uses become expensive. A temporary use with reversible fit-out is genuinely temporary. A temporary use with a new shopfront, a mezzanine, an extract duct up the rear elevation and a commercial kitchen is a building that has been changed.

Physical alterations have their own consequences. Some need planning permission in their own right. An extract system serving a kitchen will need a Ventilation and Extraction Statement and will attract environmental health interest in odour and noise. A mezzanine may need permission depending on floorspace and use. And the works themselves become evidence that the use was intended to last, which undermines any later argument that the previous use was never abandoned.

Specify reversibility in the design. Freestanding structures, surface-mounted services, and a schedule of condition photographed before work starts will save an argument at the end.

Landlord and lease considerations

The lease and the permission have to end at the same time, and they frequently do not.

Make the term of the lease match or sit inside the permitted period, and deal expressly with what happens if the permission is extended or refused. Get a licence for alterations with a reinstatement schedule attached. Agree who applies for any further permission and who pays. And check whether the tenancy is inside or outside the security of tenure provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, because a meanwhile tenant with security of tenure is not a meanwhile tenant.

Also confirm who carries the obligation in any restoration condition. Planning conditions bind the land, which means the landowner is the one the council will pursue, whatever the lease says between the parties.

Managing the exit

Put the exit date in the diary at the start and work backwards from it.

Six months out, decide whether you are leaving, applying for a permanent permission, or seeking a further temporary period. Three months out, if you are leaving, instruct the reinstatement works and confirm the reversion position in writing to the council, attaching your evidence of the underlying use. On the day, photograph everything.

If you are staying, a section 73 application to vary or remove the time-limiting condition is the ordinary route, and it is decided on the planning merits as they stand then, not as they stood when the temporary permission was granted. A Planning Statement setting out what has changed, and what the trading period has demonstrated about the effects, is the document that carries that application. Where transport effects were part of the original concern, a short Transport Statement updating the position with real data from the trading period is more persuasive than any prediction.

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.