Class T – Use Class, hotels, residential institutions to state funded schools
Class T allows for the change of a property in either Use Class E (shops, offices, light industrial etc.), C1 (Hotels), C2 (residential institutions) or C2A (secure residential institutions) to a state funded school.
A prior approval application is required under Class T to create your state funded school and it will be assessed against highways, noise and contamination.
Note that Class T used to allow conversion to a registered nursery but that right was withdrawn in 2021.
The full legislation for Class T can be found below.
Legislation
Class T – commercial, business and service, hotels etc to state-funded schools
Permitted development
T. Development consisting of a change of use of a building and any land within its curtilage from a use falling within one of the following provisions of the Use Classes Order—
(a) Class C1 (hotels) of Schedule 1;
(b) Class C2 (residential institutions) of Schedule 1;
(c) Class C2A (secure residential institutions) of Schedule 1; or
(d) Class E (commercial, business or service) of Schedule 2,
to use as a state-funded school falling within Class F.1(a) of Schedule 2 to that Order.
Development not permitted
T.1 Development is not permitted by Class T if—
(b) the site is, or forms part of, a military explosives storage area;
(c) the site is, or forms part of, a safety hazard area; or
(d) the building is a listed building or a scheduled monument.
Conditions
T.2—(1) Development is permitted by Class T subject to the following conditions—
(a) the site is to be used as a state-funded school falling within Class F.1(a) of Schedule 2 to the Use Classes Order and for no other purpose, except to the extent that the other purpose is ancillary to the primary use of the site as such a state-funded school;
(b) before beginning the development, the developer must apply to the local planning authority for a determination as to whether the prior approval of the local planning authority will be required as to—
(i) transport and highways impacts of the development;
(ii) noise impacts of the development; and
(iii) contamination risks on the site,
and the provisions of paragraph W (prior approval) of this Part apply in relation to that application.
(2) Subject to sub-paragraph (3), development under Class T must begin within a period of 3 years starting with the prior approval date.
(3) Where, in relation to a particular development under Class T, planning permission is granted on an application in respect of associated operational development before the end of the period referred to in sub-paragraph (2), then development under Class T must begin within the period of 3 years starting with the date that planning permission is granted.
(4) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (3), “associated operational development” means building or other operations in relation to the same building or land which are reasonably necessary to use the building or land for the use proposed under Class T.
Page updated: 27th February 2022