The A1 use class was the shop class of the Use Classes Order as it stood from 1987 until England rewrote the order in 2020, and an applicant still meets it every week, because permissions, leases and conditions written before 2020 name A1 use, B1 use class, D1 use class and the rest. The B1 planning use was business, offices and light industry; the B2 use class was and is general industry; D1 planning use was non-residential institutions, clinics, schools and places of worship; class C1 is hotels, C2 planning use is residential institutions and use class C3 is dwellinghouses, all of which survive. This page sets out what each older class covered, which classes survive in England and which Wales keeps, and how a permission that names an old class is read now.
The lettered classes as they stood
A1 shops, A2 financial and professional services, A3 restaurants and cafes, A4 drinking establishments, A5 hot food takeaways; B1 business (offices, research, light industry), B2 general industry, B8 storage and distribution; C1 hotels, C2 residential institutions, C2A secure residential institutions, C3 dwellinghouses, C4 small houses in multiple occupation; D1 non-residential institutions, D2 assembly and leisure. Everything else was sui generis. Wales keeps this scheme, so an applicant with a Welsh site reads the classes as they stand here; the order cited below carries both.
What England changed in 2020, class by class
A1, A2, A3 and B1 went into class E, with D1's clinics, health centres, creches and nurseries and D2's indoor sport; D1's schools, libraries, museums, places of worship and law courts went to class F1; D2's halls and outdoor sport, and the shops that serve an essential local need, went to class F2. A4 pubs, A5 takeaways and D2's cinemas, concert halls, bingo and dance halls became sui generis. B2, B8, C1, C2, C3 and C4 were kept as they were. The sui generis use class and sui generis planning generally are unchanged in principle: a use in no class needs an application to change to or from.
Reading a permission that names an old class
A permission or a condition that restricts a premises to A1 use is read, in England, as restricting it to what A1 was, not to the whole of class E: a condition limiting a unit to retail does not now permit an office because both are in class E, because the condition takes the use outside the order. A lease that names B1 is a private matter between landlord and tenant and is read on its own terms. The file has to keep the class the permission names and the class the use now sits in, side by side, which is what Consentvia Pro does against each site; the change of use guide on this site sets out when an application follows.
Questions people ask about a1 use class
Does an A1 permission now allow class E use?
A permission for A1 use without a restricting condition allows the uses A1 covered, which are now within class E, so a change to another class E use is within the class. A condition restricting the use to retail is read as written and still binds.
Is B1 still a use class?
Not in England, where offices, research and light industry are in class E; Wales keeps B1. An applicant reads the order for the nation the site is in.
What happened to D1 and D2?
They were split in England: the health and childcare parts went to class E, the learning and institutional parts to F1, the community halls and outdoor sport to F2, and cinemas, concert halls and the like became sui generis. Wales keeps D1 and D2.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk, The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 as amended: the classes and what each covers
- GOV.UK planning practice guidance, When is permission required: development, change of use and the use classes
- GOV.UK planning practice guidance, Flexible options for planning permission: section 73 variations, outline and reserved matters, non-material amendments