Friday, 26 June 2020
Further temporary changes to the GPDO
The Town and Country Planning (Permitted Development and Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020 No. 632) were made on 23 June. Most of these amendments come into force on 1 August, but Regulations 20 and 21 came into effect on 25 June. I will confine myself in this post to these two changes, and will discuss the other changes in a later post.
Regulation 20 introduces a new PD right for temporary changes of use in Part 4 of the Second Schedule to the GPDO. This is Class BA (additional temporary use of land). This PD right is additional to the 14/28 day uses permitted by Part 4, Class B. It is also additional to the temporary change of use permitted by Class BA of Part 12 (as to which see below). The development permitted is the use of any land, in addition to that permitted by Class B of Part 4, for any purposes for not more than 28 days in total during the period from 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2020, of which no more than 14 days in total may be for the purposes of the holding of a market, or for the purposes of motor car and motorcycle racing including trials of speed, and practising for these activities, and the provision on the land of any moveable structure for the purposes of the permitted use.
However, development is not permitted by Class BA of Part 4 if:
(a) the land in question is a building or is within the curtilage of a listed building;
(b) the use of the land is for a caravan site;
(c) the land is, or is within, a site of special scientific interest, and the use of the land is for motor car and motorcycle racing including trials of speed or other motor sports, and practising for these activities; clay pigeon shooting; or any war game, or
(d) the use of the land is for the display of an advertisement.
Regulation 21 introduces a new PD right in Part 12 of the Second Schedule. This is Class BA of that Part, which relates to the holding of a market by or on behalf of a local authority The development permitted is the use of any land for the purposes of holding a market by or on behalf of a local authority and the provision on the land of any moveable structure for the permitted use at any time during the period beginning with 25 June 2020 and ending with 23 March 2021.
Development is not permitted by Class BA of Part 12 if the land is, or is within, a site of special scientific interest.
I confess that the justification for the extra temporary PD rights outlined above has escaped me, other perhaps than a desire on the part of the government to provide more ‘bread and circuses’ for “the ordinary people” as the PM and his boss (D Cummings, Esq) are in the habit of calling us.
Although I'll be dealing with the rest of this SI in a future post, I should perhaps mention that other measures in these regulations are not related in any way to Coronavirus; nor are they temporary. These regulations contain some quite important changes to other PD rights. Watch this space!
© MARTIN H GOODALL
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Hi Martin,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for another great post on the fresh PD amendments.
I see that a number of sections now have a requirement to demonstrate the ‘provision of adequate natural light’ and now require floor plans and elevations to be submitted as set out in Paragraph W.
Notwithstanding quite how a planning officer will determine the ‘provision of adequate natural light’ (I fear they may resort to demanding technical light assessments at great cost), this also completely ignores the contribution that rooflights can make in meeting this provision (noting also that roof plans have not been required).
Also, and in connection with this, Class PA has been included within this new requirement, however it was my understanding that the temporary 3-year permissions allowed under PA are due to expire in October this year and (unless I’ve missed a PD update?) has not been renewed.
By my calculations this means that any application that wants to benefit from class PA would need to be submitted and validated by the 4th August (just over 5 weeks’ time) in order to meet the end date. In which case, this additional requirement is rather late notice and somewhat unreasonable to say the least. Of course; that all assumes we’re talking about a government that knows what it is doing…
Any insight into how PD may, or may not, change in the very immediate future would be very welcome at this point.
Regards,
Matt
I shall be commenting on these further provisions in my next post I deliberately confined the post above to those provisions which came into force last week.
DeleteIf anyone is contemplating the residential conversion of a light industrial building (under Class PA), there is now only a very limited window of opportunity in which to make a prior approval application. I wouldn’t even leave at as late as 4th August; you need to allow for possible ‘glitches’ in getting a complete and valid application in, with the correct fee, etc. You should aim to get the application in during July at the very latest.
I’ll try to post my detailed comments on the parts of the new regulations referred to by Matt by the end of this week.
Hi Martin,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for another great post on the fresh PD amendments.
I see that a number of sections now have a requirement to demonstrate the ‘provision of adequate natural light’ and now require floor plans and elevations to be submitted as set out in Paragraph W.
Notwithstanding quite how a planning officer will determine the ‘provision of adequate natural light’ (I fear they may resort to demanding technical light assessments at great cost), this also completely ignores the contribution that rooflights can make in meeting this provision (noting also that roof plans have not been required).
Also, and in connection with this, Class PA has been included within this new requirement, however it was my understanding that the temporary 3-year permissions allowed under PA are due to expire in October this year and (unless I’ve missed a PD update?) has not been renewed.
By my calculations this means that any application that wants to benefit from class PA would need to be submitted and validated by the 4th August (just over 5 weeks’ time) in order to meet the end date. In which case, this additional requirement is rather late notice and somewhat unreasonable to say the least. Of course; that all assumes we’re talking about a government that knows what it is doing…
Any insight into how PD may, or may not, change in the very immediate future would be very welcome at this point.
Regards,
Matt
I'm sorry that I previously missed this comment, but I have in fact addressed the issues that Matt quite rightly raises in my subsequent post on 'Latest Changes to the GPDO"
DeleteAfternoon Martin, I suspect that the Business and Planning Bill is likely to be fast tracked thro Parliament with all this means for changing working hours conditions etc in consequence of coronavirus etc
ReplyDeleteHello Martin,
ReplyDeleteThanks as always for your informative blog posts. I am a little confused (perhaps) here by the wording of BA.1(a): "the land in question is a building or is within the curtilage of a listed building". I take this to mean the additional temporary use rights don't apply inside any building, and additionally don't apply within the curtilage of a listed building-- but that would leave the curtilage of any non-listed building to which the rights *do* apply. I wonder if that was the intention as that would allow an awful lot of very disruptive uses being allowed on an awful lot of completely inappropriate sites (eg. of the top of my head-- the use of a residential front garden as a waste transfer station). Have I misunderstood it?
The words here mean exactly what they say. This PD right does not apply to any building, but only to land not covered by a building. The PD right under Class BA of Part 4 does apply to the curtilage of a building, provided that the building is not a listed building. However, in the latter case, any land within the curtilage of the listed building is also excluded.
DeleteThe effect of Class BA was simply to extend the 14-day use under Part 4, Class B to 28 days (subject to the two stated exceptions). The temporary PD right under Class BA applied only up to 31 December 2020. I can't remember offhand whether that period was subsequently extended, and if so for how long.