Restrictions on retailers could be swept away in the biggest shake-up of use classes for 15 years.
In a response to pressure from business to free up the planning system, the DTLR is looking at scrapping the divisions between A1, 2 and 3 use classes. The change would mean that landowners would no longer need to apply for planning permission to transform a shop into a restaurant or a bank.
The proposals recommend that class A premises, excluding restaurants and pubs over 100 sq m (1076sq ft), should be grouped together as Aa “mixed-retail” and should be able to change use without the need for planning consent. Above 100 sq m pubs and restaurants are separated into Ab and Ac.
According to the DTLR, these changes would provide “clear benefits to planning authorities” who would avoid the need for a “very wide ranging but generally harmless group of activities to be subject to planning procedures”.
The proposals, intended to be a deregulatory measure, follow on from the Government’s commitment to review the 1987 use class orders in the 1998 New Deal for Transport. The review was commissioned by DTLR and drawn up by Baker Associates and Imperial College London.
EGi News 21/09/01
