What Class E covers and the changes it allows

Class E of the Use Classes Order covers shops, restaurants, financial and professional services, gyms, clinics, nurseries, offices, research and light industry, all in one class. Because moving between uses in the same class is not development, a unit with an unrestricted Class E use can switch from a shop to a cafe to a gym to a nursery without applying for planning permission. That is the headline, and it is why commercial agents market units as Class E.

The qualifications matter more than the headline. A condition on the original permission can remove the flexibility entirely, hot food takeaways and pubs are outside the class, and the physical works needed to make the switch usually need permission even when the use change does not.

The sub-classes inside Class E

The class was created by the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020, which folded the old A1, A2, A3, B1, D1 and D2 uses into a single commercial, business and service class with seven lettered limbs.

Read the qualifying words rather than the headline of each limb. The phrase "principally to visiting members of the public" does real work in E(b), E(d), E(e) and E(f). A fitness studio open only to members by prior appointment, with no walk-in trade, is arguably not within E(d) at all, and the same reasoning reaches members-only clubs.

E(g) carries its own test. The use must be one that could be carried out in a residential area without detriment to amenity, so a noisy process in a Class E unit is not within E(g) merely because it is light industrial in character.

Why movement within the class is not development

Section 55(2)(f) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 provides that in the case of buildings or land in a use specified in the Use Classes Order, the use for any other purpose within the same class is not to be taken to involve development. No development means no planning permission needed, and no application, notification or fee.

Three things follow.

There is nothing to apply for, so there is no decision notice to show a landlord or a lender. Where certainty is needed, the route is a certificate of lawfulness for a proposed use under section 192 of the 1990 Act, which produces a formal determination.

The Order describes uses, not activities in the abstract. What matters is the character of the use as a planning unit, so a shop with a small coffee counter remains a shop rather than becoming a mixed use.

And the lawful existing use has to be within Class E for the right to be available at all. That is the question that most often goes wrong, and it is dealt with below.

What Class E does not include

The exclusions are where applications arrive at the council.

• Hot food takeaways, where food is sold for consumption off the premises, are sui generis. The split between E(b) and a takeaway turns on where the food is principally consumed, and a restaurant with a large delivery trade can drift across the line.
• Pubs, wine bars and other drinking establishments are sui generis, as are drinking establishments with expanded food provision.
• Cinemas, concert halls, bingo halls, dance halls and live music venues are sui generis.
• Hotels and guest houses are Class C1.
• Schools, museums, libraries, art galleries, public halls and places of worship fall in Class F1.
• Local community uses sit in Class F2, which includes a small shop of limited floorspace selling essential goods where there is no other such shop within a defined distance, along with halls and meeting places, outdoor sport, swimming pools and skating rinks.
• Vehicle-related uses such as a hand car wash, scrap yards and petrol filling stations are sui generis, and the position on a car wash is set out in our note on planning permission for a hand car wash.

The F1 and F2 boundary catches community organisations out. A church hall opening a public cafe is moving towards E(b) from F1, which is a change of use needing permission, and that specific scenario is covered in church cafe planning permission.

Conditions that pin a permission to one named use

This is the single most important check, and it takes ten minutes on the council's public register.

Where a permission was granted subject to a condition restricting the use to a specific purpose, the condition overrides the Class E flexibility. A unit permitted as a retail shop with a condition that it shall be used for retail purposes only, and for no other purpose within the class, cannot become a gym without an application to vary or remove that condition under section 73 of the 1990 Act.

Conditions of this kind are common on units in retail parades, on edge-of-centre schemes where the retail impact case was finely balanced, and wherever parking or servicing was assessed for one use. Opening hours conditions are a related constraint and bite on any new operator, as our note on varying an opening hours condition explains.

Read the whole decision notice, including conditions on earlier permissions that remain in force, and check whether a subsequent permission superseded them.

Proving the lawful existing use

A right to change within Class E depends on the existing use being lawfully within Class E. For a unit that has been trading continuously under a clear permission, that is simple. For a long-vacant unit, or one whose use predates the 2020 changes, it is not.

Evidence that helps: the original planning permission and its conditions, business rates records with the description and period, leases naming the permitted user, dated photographs, and trading records. Where the use has changed over time without permission, the question becomes whether the unauthorised use has become lawful through the passage of time, which is a matter of fact and statutory time limits rather than assumption.

A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that an existing use is lawful. Apply for one before a lease is signed where the position is doubtful.

The practical limits on flexibility

The use change may be free. The project is not.

A shop becoming a restaurant needs kitchen extraction, which almost always needs planning permission for the external duct and a Ventilation and Extraction Statement dealing with odour and fan noise. A unit becoming a nursery needs outdoor play space, which raises noise and overlooking questions. A gym needs plant for ventilation and cooling, and the acoustic case on that plant is assessed against the neighbours' background sound level.

Other constraints that survive the class change: listed building consent for internal alterations, advertisement consent for signage, an Article 4 direction that removes a permitted development right in the area, licensing for alcohol or regulated entertainment, and Building Regulations approval for the works. Splitting a unit raises its own set of issues, covered in splitting a commercial unit into two.

Where a change still needs permission

Permission is needed when the new use falls outside Class E, when a condition restricts the use, when the change involves building works amounting to development, when the proposal would create a mixed use rather than a single use within the class, or when the existing lawful use is not within Class E in the first place.

Moving from Class E to residential has its own route, the prior approval procedure under Class MA of the General Permitted Development Order, whose conditions and limits have been amended since it was introduced. Check the current text rather than an older summary before relying on it.

Check the decision notice and its conditions before you sign a lease, because that document decides whether the flexibility exists. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a change of use is likely to need.

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.