Article 4 direction: Class E commercial, business and service uses to residential

Overview

Tell us what you think about proposals to ensure developers need to acquire planning permission before converting commercial properties to residential status.

On 31 March 2021, the government announced that it is introducing legislation for England to bring forward the new Use Class E to residential Permitted Development Rights from 1 August 2021. The proposal allows all uses within Class E (commercial, business and service) to change to use Class C3 residential under a new class MA in the General Permitted Development Order (GPDO).

An Article 4 Direction can be used to remove specific permitted development rights in all or parts of the local authority’s area. It would not restrict development altogether, but instead ensure that development requires planning permission. A planning application for the proposal would need to be submitted that would then be determined in accordance with the development plan.

We are proposing four Article 4 Directions to remove some of these permitted development rights and protect commercial uses in certain locations: 

1. Non-immediate Article 4 Direction that comes into effect 1 August 2022 to withdraw the permitted development rights (Class MA) for changes of use from office use (Class E(g)(i)) to a dwellinghouse (Class C3) in the Central Activities Zone and railway arches in Southwark.

Our existing Article 4 Direction restricting changes of use from offices to residential in the CAZ and railway arches remains in place until 31 July 2022 so this Article 4 Direction will replace this next year.

2. Immediate Article 4 Direction that comes into effect 1 August 2021 to withdraw the permitted development rights (Class MA) for changes of use from Commercial, Business and Leisure (Class E - except offices) to a dwellinghouse (Class C3) in the Central Activities Zone and railway arches in Southwark.

3. Immediate Article 4 Direction that comes into effect 1 August 2021 to withdraw permitted development rights (Class MA) for change of use from Class E (commercial, business and leisure) to residential (C3) in town centres, NSP site allocations, shopping frontages and industrial land

4. Non-immediate Article 4 Direction that comes into effect 1 August 2022 to remove permitted development rights (Class ZA) for demolition of commercial or residential buildings and the construction of new residential buildings in the Central Activities Zone, town centres, NSP site allocations and industrial land.

The Council is consulting on this Article 4 Direction for seven weeks, starting from Thursday 29 July and running to midnight on Thursday 16 September 2021.

The Council would like to hear your views on the proposed Article 4 Directions.

More information can be found on our Article 4 webpages here.

The committee report can be viewed here.