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Changes of Use
CHANGE OF USE COMMENTARY
Steph Fanizza, Architectural Design & Team Manager
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– IN A CLASS OF THEIR OWN
What an interesting study it is to observe the recent variety of change of use applications! They are severally unique, and yet we have a considerable onslaught. It would be reasonable to expect duplications of requests, be it sandwich shop to hot food, hair-dresser to mini-cab, and yet on they teem in their vast array.
The only exception is the common garage to habitable room application, which in itself is noteworthy because it used to be a popular addition to have a garage, but with the changing face of the social and economic portrait in London, people are ready to forego this luxury to add living space. Some garages had morphed into storerooms or – more accurately – junk rooms, therefore less of a sacrifice than a full-blown car crib. Those that were used for the proper thing can usually still accommodate off-street parking in the front ‘garden’, so there is not much impact on the driver’s insurance, and the house now gains a valuable addition to the floor plan.
But back to our A1 to D2s… we have residential to offices and vice versa:
commercial to residential… even vacant property to mixed use.
CASES
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- B1 office to D1/D2 clinics / leisure, C1 hotel or C3 residential
- A4 public house to C3 residential
- A1 retail to A3/A4 restaurant / wine bar, or to A3/A5 hot food / take-away
- B1 office to B1 to mixed use C1 & A classes
- B2 to C3 annex
KNOW YOUR CODES
- A1 Shops, retail warehouses, hairdressers, undertakers, travel & ticket agencies, post offices, pet shops, sandwich bars, showrooms, domestic hire shops, dry cleaners, funeral directors and internet cafes.
- A2 Financial & professional services – banks & building societies, professional services (other than health and medical services) including estate and employment agencies. Betting offices / pay day loan shops are no longer included. See as “sui generis” uses below.
- A3 Restaurants / cafés
- A4 Drinking establishments – Public houses, wine bars (not night clubs).
- A5 Hot food takeaways – For the sale of hot food for consumption off the premises.
- B1 Business – Offices (other than those in A2), research / development, light industry appropriate to residential areas.
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B2 General industrial – other than falling within class B1 (excludes incineration purposes, chemical treatment, landfill or hazardous waste).
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B8 Storage / distribution – including open air storage.
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C1 Hotels, boarding and guest houses where no significant care is provided (not hostels).
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C2 Residential care homes, hospitals, nursing homes, boarding schools, residential colleges / training centres.
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C2A Secure Residential Institution – Use for a provision of secure residential accommodation, including use as a prison, young offenders institution, detention centre, secure training centre, custody centre, short term holding centre, secure hospital, secure local authority accommodation or use as a military barracks.
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C3 Dwellings – this class is formed of 3 parts:
C3(a) covers use by a single person or a family (a couple whether married or not, a person related to one another with members of the family of one of the couple to be treated as members of the family of the other), an employer and certain domestic employees (e.g. au pair, nanny, nurse, governess, servant, chauffeur, gardener, secretary and personal assistant), a carer and person receiving care or a foster parent and foster child.
C3(b): up to six people living together as a single household and receiving care e.g. supported housing schemes such as those for people with learning disabilities or mental health problems.C3(c) allows for groups of people (up to six) living together as a single household. This allows for those groupings that do not fall within the C4 HMO definition, but which fell within the previous C3 use class, to be provided for i.e. a small religious community may fall into this section as could a homeowner who is living with a lodger.
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C4 Houses in multiple occupation – small shared houses occupied by between three and six unrelated individuals, as their only or main residence, who share amenities such as a kitchen or bathroom.
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D1 Non-residential institutions – Clinics, health centres, crèches, day nurseries, day centres, schools, art galleries (other than for sale or hire), museums, libraries, halls, places of worship, church halls, law court. Non residential education and training centres.
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D2 Assembly and leisure – Cinemas, music and concert halls, bingo and dance halls (but not night clubs), swimming baths, skating rinks, gymnasiums or area for indoor or outdoor sports and recreations (except for motor sports, or where firearms are used).
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Sui Generis – Certain uses do not fall within a class so are considered ‘sui generis’. Such uses include: betting offices/shops, pay day loan shops, theatres, larger houses in multiple occupation, hostels providing no significant element of care, scrap yards. Petrol filling stations and shops selling and/or displaying motor vehicles. Retail warehouse clubs, nightclubs, launderettes, taxi businesses, amusement centres and casinos.
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Lets not mix up our Cs or we may get more than we bargained for (C2A)!
IN CONCLUSION
Sui Generis would appear to be like M for Miscellaneous. But the definition is more like a class of their own, like the irregular French verbs. Lets just be careful not to confuse our C2s with C2As!
The End ∎
