What to submit with a Class MA prior approval application

A prior approval application under Class MA is narrow by design. The authority may only consider the matters the Order prescribes, so the Class MA prior approval submission checklist is short, and the applications that fail usually fail because one prescribed matter was left unaddressed rather than because the scheme was poor. Get the eligibility conditions and the prescribed matters covered and the 56-day clock works in your favour.

Read the current text of Class MA before you start. Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO 2015 has been amended repeatedly, and summaries written a few years ago are out of date.

Eligibility before anything else

Class MA permits a change of use from Class E, the commercial, business and service class, to Class C3 dwellinghouses. The eligibility conditions sit in the Class itself and they are absolute: fail one and the Class is simply unavailable.

The building must have been in a Class E use, or a use falling within Class E, for a continuous period of at least two years before the date of the application. That requirement remains, and evidencing it is the single most common stumbling block.

The Class is also unavailable where the building is listed or within the curtilage of a listed building, is a scheduled monument, sits on land within a site of special scientific interest, is in a safety hazard area or a military explosives storage area, or where the land is in agricultural use. An Article 4 direction can remove the Class for a defined area, and many authorities have made them for town centres.

Two conditions that applied when Class MA was introduced, a 1,500 square metre floorspace limit and a three-month vacancy requirement, were removed by amendment in 2024. Confirm the current position against the Order on legislation.gov.uk rather than against any secondary source, including this one.

Evidencing the previous use

The authority needs to be satisfied, on evidence, that the two-year Class E use test is met. There is no prescribed form of proof, so assemble a bundle:

• Business rates records for the unit covering the whole period, showing the description and the ratepayer.
• Leases or licences with their terms and dates, and any assignment.
• Utility bills or service contracts in the occupier's name.
• Dated photographs of the unit in use, and signage.
• Company accounts or VAT registration showing trading from the address.
• A statutory declaration from the owner or former occupier where documentary evidence has gaps.

Gaps matter more than volume. A six-month hole in the middle of the period invites the argument that the use was not continuous, so address any gap directly with an explanation rather than hoping it passes unnoticed.

Where the building was in mixed use, be precise about which parts were in Class E and for how long, because the Class applies to the building or part of it.

The prescribed matters the authority considers

The Order lists what prior approval covers, and nothing else is a ground for refusal. The list runs to transport impacts and safe site access, contamination risks, flooding risks, impacts of noise from commercial premises on the intended occupiers, the effect on intended occupiers where only part of a building changes use, the loss of a ground floor use in a conservation area, the provision of adequate natural light in all habitable rooms, and the sustainability of an area that is important for industry, storage, distribution or waste management.

Address each one explicitly, under its own heading, even where the answer is short. An officer working through a statutory list with a deadline is looking for the heading.

Flooding, contamination and noise information

These three carry the most refusals, and each has a sensible proportionate answer.

On flooding, check the flood map for planning and state the zone. In Flood Zone 2 or 3 a Flood Risk Assessment is expected, addressing finished floor levels, safe access and egress and residual risk. Converting ground-floor commercial space to dwellings in a flood zone is the hardest version of a Class MA application, and sometimes the honest answer is to keep the ground floor commercial.

On contamination, a desk study covering the site history is usually enough for an upper-floor office conversion. Where there is an industrial history, former fuel storage or made ground, a Land Contamination Assessment with intrusive investigation will be expected, and that work has to be done by a suitably qualified person.

On noise, the prescribed matter is the effect of commercial noise on the future residents, which is the agent of change principle in statutory form. A Noise Impact Assessment measuring the actual environment, including any plant, servicing and late-night activity nearby, and specifying glazing and ventilation to achieve internal levels, is what satisfies it. Generic assertions do not.

Natural light to habitable rooms

Adequate natural light in all habitable rooms is a hard requirement, and it is the matter that most often defeats deep-plan office floorplates. Bathrooms, hallways and kitchens that form part of a larger room are not habitable rooms for this purpose, but bedrooms and living spaces are.

Supply room-by-room plans showing each habitable room with its window, the window dimensions, the room depth and the orientation. Where a room is deep or has a single window, a daylight calculation is worth doing rather than waiting to be asked, and the choice of baseline and method matters as much as the result, as set out in the mirror image baseline in a daylight assessment.

Rooms with no window at all will not pass. Rooflights, light wells and internal courtyards can work, but they need to be shown and dimensioned.

Drawings, conditions and space standards

Submit existing and proposed floor plans at a sensible scale, existing and proposed elevations where any external change is proposed, a site location plan with the red line, and a unit schedule with areas.

Development under Class MA carries a condition requiring the dwellings to comply with the nationally described space standard, so put the areas and the room dimensions on the schedule and show compliance. Bin and cycle storage, while not a prescribed matter in its own right, will come up through transport and servicing, and the arithmetic should match the approach in waste storage calculations for a waste management strategy.

Timescales and non-determination

The procedure in paragraph W of Part 3 gives the authority 56 days from a valid application to determine it, including any consultation. If the authority does not notify a decision within that period, the development may proceed subject to the conditions in the Class, which is the deemed approval route.

Do not rely on it casually. Deemed approval only follows a valid application, and validity disputes are where it unravels. Pay the fee, supply the prescribed information, and keep the submission receipt and the correspondence.

Once prior approval is granted, the development has to be completed within three years. Where the scheme needs external alterations beyond what the Class permits, those need separate permission, and it is usually cleaner to run the two applications together.

Draft the supporting statements for a Class MA submission in minutes, then check the wider document set against all 66 report types.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works or a use are lawful. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.