Class DB – power for local authorities to fill empty high street property
Permitted Development right Class DB allows a local authority to take a suitable qualifying high street premises and rent it out to a third party subject to certain limitations via a rental auction. This was laid before parliament on 11th November 2024 and came into effect on 2nd December 2024.
This gives local authorities new powers to force landlords to rent out empty high street properties that have a tendency to remain vacant.
The property must have been empty for at least 365 days in a 24-month period, and this will follow the local authority working with the landlord to find a suitable tenant.
High Street Rental Auctions (HSRAs) will allow local authorities to tackle persistently vacant properties in city, town and village centres by putting the leases up for auction. This will boost the high street through a ‘right to rent’ commercial lots for businesses and community groups
What is a suitable high street premises?
In the leveling-up and regeneration Act 2023 this is defined in section 192.
This is defined as a shop or office; provision of services to persons who include visiting members of the public; use as a restaurant, bar, public house, café or other establishment selling food or drink for immediate consumption; use for public entertainment or recreation; use as a communal hall or meeting-place; use for manufacturing or other industrial processes of a sort that can (in each case) reasonably be carried on in proximity to, and compatibly with, the preceding uses.
The above must be situated on a designated high street or in a designated town centre and the local authority must consider them suitable for a high street use.
Legislation
Class DB: Use of qualifying high-street premises changing to a suitable high-street use
Permitted development
DB. Development consisting of a change of use of a building which is a qualifying high-street premises within the meaning of section 192(2) of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (“the 2023 Act”) and any land within the curtilage of that building to a suitable high-street use (as defined by section 192(4) of the 2023 Act) for the duration of a tenancy granted following a rental auction of the premises held under Part 10 of the 2023 Act.
Development not permitted
DB.1 Development is not permitted by Class DB if the premises form part of a site which is, or forms part of—
(a) a military explosives storage area, or
(b) a safety hazard area.
Conditions
DB.2 Development is permitted by Class DB subject to the following conditions—
(a) the local authority responsible for the rental auction must notify the local planning authority of—
(i) the suitable high-street use for which the premises will be used;
(ii) the date on which that use will commence;
(iii) the date on which that use will cease;
(b) at the end of the tenancy granted in relation to the premises, the premises must revert to their former use.
Page Updated: 13th November 2024