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The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987

 

In 1987 we saw the fifth and most recent Use Classes Order issued. This was a big re-write from the previous version in 1972. We saw Parts A, B, C & D introduced which we still use today with the respective alphanumerical classes beneath. We also say goodbye finally to tripe shops and cats-meat shops – although I guess both could now operate under Class A1.

Although we still have rag & bones, breeding maggots and boiling tripe in 1987 until they went in 1995.

We finally see residential houses being introduced into the Use Classes order in 1987 with HMOs in 2010.

Pubs, restaurants and cafés were together as A3 until pubs were split off to A4 in 2005.

This order applied initially to the whole of England and Wales. But from 2000 Wales split away from England. At this time all the changes on this page refer to England only.

This Use Classes Order is still valid today, although it had a major amendment in 2020, which we have split onto its own page (to come)

The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987

Most of the previous definitions have been removed. However the list of uses excluded from the Use Class order and there are Sui Generis is more defined.

 

Use Classes 1987 – 2019

 

SI 1987/764 was laid before Parliament on 28th April 1987 and came into operation on 1st June 1987.

You can view the original version here.

There were eight amendments to the Use Classes Order 1987 until 2019

SI 1991/1567 – The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) Order 1991 – download here
SI 1992/0610 – The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) Order 1992 – download here
SI 1992/0657 – The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 1992 – download here
SI 1994/0724 – The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) Order 1994 – download here
SI 1995/0297 – The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) Order 1995 – download here
SI 2005/0084 – The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2005 – download here
SI 2006/0220 – The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2006 – download here
SI 2010/0653 – The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2010 – download here

The original 1987 Use Class order is in ordinary type. Any items removed are crossed out with the date of removal or new items are added with the date of being added.

The following items were classed as Sui Generis falling outside of the Use Class Order.

Theatre
Amusement Arcade or centre or a funfair
For the washing or cleaning of clothes or fabrics in coin-operated machines or on premises at which the goods to be cleaned are received direct from the visiting public (deleted 1991)
Launderette (added 1991)
For the sale or display of motor vehicles
For a taxi business or business for the hire of motor vehicles
As a scrapyard, or a yard for the storage or distribution of materials or the braking of motor vehicles
for any work registrable under the Alkali, etc. Works Regulation Act 1906 (added 1992)
Hostel, (added 1992)
Retail warehouse club being a retail club where goods are sold, or displayed for sale, only to persons who are members of that club;
Night-club. (added 2005)
Casino., (added 2006)
Betting office, (added 2015)
Pay day loan shop. (added 2015)

 

Class A1
Shops		 Use for all or any of the following purposes-
(a) for the retail sale of goods other than hot food,
(b) as a post office,
(c) for the sale of tickets or as a travel agency,
(d) for the sale of sandwiches or other cold food for consumption off the premises,
(e) for hairdressing,
(f) for the direction of funerals,
(g) for the display of goods for sale,
(h) for the hiring out of domestic or personal goods or articles,
(i) for the reception of goods to be washed, cleaned or repaired, (deleted 1991)
(i) for the washing or cleaning of clothes or fabrics on the premises, (added 1991)
(j) for the reception of goods to be washed, cleaned or repaired, (added 1991)
(k) as an internet café; where the primary purpose of the premises is to provide facilities for enabling members of the public to access the internet  (added 2005)
where the sale, display or service is to visiting members of the public.
Class A2
Financial and professional services		 Use for the provision of –
(a) financial services, or
(b) professional services ( other than health or medical services), or
(c) any other services (including use as a betting office) which it is appropriate to provide in a shopping area, (deleted 2015)
where the services are provided principally to visiting members of the public.
Class A3
Food and drink		 Use for the sale of food or drink for consumption on the premises or of hot food for consumption off the premises. (deleted 2005)
Class A3
Restaurants and Cafes 		 Use for the sale of food and drink for consumption on the premises. (added 2005)
A4
Drinking establishments		 Use for the sale of food and drink for consumption on the premises. (added 2005)
A5
Hot Food Takeaway		 Use for the sale of hot food for consumption off the premises. (added 2005)
Class B1
Business		 Use for all or any of the following purposes-
(a) as an office other than a use within class A2 (financial and professional services),
(b) for research and development of products or processes, or
(c) for any industrial process,
being a use which can be carried out in any residential area without detriment to the amenity of that area by reason of noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, soot, ash, dust or grit.
Class B2
General industrial		 Use for the carrying on of an industrial process other than one falling within class Bl above or within classes B3 to B7 below. (deleted 1992)
Class B3 Use for any work registrable under the Alkali, etc. Works Regulation Act 1906 and which is not included in any of classes B4 to B7 below  (deleted 1992)
Class B4 Use for any of the following processes, except where the process is ancillary to the getting, dressing or treatment of minerals and is carried on in or adjacent to a quarry or mine:-
    (a) smelting, calcining, sintering or reducing ores, minerals, concentrates or mattes;
    {b) converting, refining, re-heating, annealing, hardening, melting, carburising, forging or casting metals or alloys other than pressure die-casting;
    (c) recovering metal from scrap or drosses or ashes;
    (d) galvanizing;
    (e) pickling or treating metal in acid;
    (f) chromium plating. (deleted 1995)
Class B5 Use for any of the following processes, except where the process is ancillary to the getting, dressing or treatment of minerals and is carried on in or adjacent to a quarry or mine:-
    (a) burning bricks or pipes;
    (b) burning lime or dolomite;
    (c) producing zinc oxide, cement or alumina;
    (d) foaming, crushing, screening or heating minerals or slag;
    (e) processing pulverized fuel ash by heat;
    (f) producing carbonate of lime or hydrated lime;
    (g) producing inorganic pigments by calcining, roasting or grinding. (deleted 1995)
Class B6 Use for any of the following processes:-
    (a) distilling, refining or blending oils (other than petroleum or petroleum products);
    (b) producing or using cellulose or using other pressure sprayed metal finishes (other than in vehicle repair workshops in connection with minor repairs, or the application of plastic powder by the use of fluidised bed and electrostatic spray techniques);
    (c) boiling linseed oil or running gum;
    (d) processes involving the use of hot pitch or bitumen (except the use of bitumen in the manufacture of roofing felt at temperatures not exceeding 220°C and also the manufacture of coated roadstone);
    (e) stoving enamelled ware;
    (f) producing aliphatic esters of the lower fatty acids, butyric acid, caramel, hexamine, iodoform, napthols, resin products (excluding plastic moulding or extrusion operations and producing plastic sheets, rods, tubes, filaments, fibres or optical components produced by casting, calendering, moulding, shaping or extrusion), salicylic acid or sulphonated organic compounds;
    (g) producing rubber from scrap;
    (h) chemical processes in which chlorphenols or chlorcresols are used as intermediates;
    (i) manufacturing acetylene from calcium carbide;
    (j) manufacturing, recovering or using pyridine or picolines, any methyl or ethyl amine or acrylates. (deleted 1995)
Class B7 Use for carrying on any of the following industries, businesses or trades:­
Boiling blood, chitterlings, nettlings or soap.
Boiling, burning, grinding or steaming bones.
Boiling or cleaning tripe.
Breeding maggots from putrescible animal matter.
Cleaning, adapting or treating animal hair.
Curing fish.
Dealing in rags and bones (including receiving, storing, sorting or manipulating rags in, or likely to become in, an offensive condition, or any bones, rabbit skins, fat or putrescible animal products of a similar nature).
Dressing or scraping fish skins.
Drying skins.
Making manure from bones, fish, offal, blood, spent hops, beans or other putrescible animal or vegetable matter.
Making or scraping guts.
Manufacturing animal charcoal, blood albumen, candles, catgut, glue, fish oil, size or feeding stuff for animals or poultry from meat, fish, blood, bone, feathers, fat or animal offal either in an offensive condition or subjected to any process causing noxious or injurious effluvia.
Melting, refining or extracting fat or tallow.
Preparing skins for working.  (deleted 1995)
Class B8
Storage or distribution		 Use for storage or as a distribution centre.
Class C1
Hotels and hostels		 Use as a hotel, boarding or guest house or as a hostel where, in each case, no significant element of care is provided. (Hostel deleted 1994)
Class C2
Residential institutions		 Use for the provision of residential accommodation and care to people in need of care (other than a use within class C3 (dwelling houses)). Use as a hospital or nursing home. Use as a residential school, college or training centre.
Class C2A
Secure residential institutions		 Use for the provision of secure residential accommodation, including use as a prison, young offenders institution, detention centre, secure training centre, custody centre, short-term holding centre, secure hospital, secure local authority accommodation or use as military barracks. (added 2010)
Class C3
Dwellinghouses		 Use as a dwellinghouse (whether or not as a sole or main residence) –
    (a) by a single person or by people living together as a family, or
    (b) by not more than 6 residents living together as a single household (including a household where care is provided for residents). (deleted 2010)
Class C3
Dwellinghouses		 Use as a dwellinghouse (whether or not as a sole or main residence) by—
(a) a single person or by people to be regarded as forming a single household;
(b) not more than six residents living together as a single household where care is provided for residents;
or
(c) not more than six residents living together as a single household where no care is provided to residents (other than a use within Class C4).

 

Interpretation of Class C3 For the purposes of Class C3(a) “single household” shall be construed in accordance with section 258 of the Housing Act 2004          (C3 replaced 2010)
Class C4
Houses in multiple occupation

Use of a dwellinghouse by not more than six residents as a “house in multiple occupation”.

Interpretation of Class C4 For the purposes of Class C4 a “house in multiple occupation” does not include a converted block of flats to which section 257 of the Housing Act 2004 applies but otherwise has the same meaning as in section 254 of the Housing Act 2004.            (C4 added 2010)
Class D1
Non-residential institutions		 Any use not including a residential use –
(a) for the provision of any medical or health services except the use of premises attached to the residence of the consultant or practitioner,
(b) as a creche, day nursery or day centre,
(c) for the provision of education,
(d) for the display of works of art (otherwise than for sale or hire),
(e) as a museum,
(f) as a public library or public reading room,
(g) as a public hall or exhibition hall,
(h) for, or in connection with, public worship or religious instruction.
(i) as a law court  (added 2006)
Class D2
Assembly and leisure		 Use as –
(a) a cinema,
(b) a concert hall,
(c) a bingo hall or casino, (deleted 2006)
(d) a dance hall,
(e) a swimming bath, skating rink, gymnasium or area for other indoor or outdoor sports or recreations, not involving motorised vehicles or firearms.

 

There was a major amendment in 2020 so we have split that onto its own page

 

 

 

 

 

Page Updated: 30th November 2023

 

Other Planning Use Classes Sections

Which Use Class is my building?UCO Timeline
Part B - B2 - B8Use Class F1
Part C - C1 - C2 - C2A - C3 - C4 - C5Use Class F2
Use Class ESui Generis
Directory of UsesChanges in 2020/21

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