What is Class MA permitted development?

Class MA is a permitted development right in the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Schedule 2, Part 3. It allows a change of use from Use Class E (commercial, business and service uses such as shops, offices, cafes, restaurants, professional services, gyms, nurseries and health centres) to Use Class C3 residential dwellinghouses, without a full planning application, subject to prior approval by the local planning authority.

What can the local planning authority refuse Class MA prior approval on?

Prior approval is considered against a defined list of matters: flooding risk, contamination risk, the impact of noise from nearby commercial premises, the provision of adequate natural light to all habitable rooms, the impact of introducing residential use into an area important for general or heavy industry, storage or distribution, and, in a conservation area, the impact of the loss of ground-floor commercial use. The authority normally determines prior approval within 56 days. New homes must meet the nationally described space standard.

Where does Class MA not apply?

Class MA does not apply to listed buildings or land within their curtilage, scheduled monuments, safety hazard areas, military explosives storage areas, sites of special scientific interest, or anywhere covered by an Article 4 direction. Many local planning authorities, particularly London boroughs, have made or are making Article 4 directions that remove Class MA in defined areas, so availability must be checked locally for the specific building.

Does Class MA avoid affordable housing and Biodiversity Net Gain?

Because it is permitted development rather than a full planning application, Class MA does not trigger affordable housing or Biodiversity Net Gain requirements. However, building regulations, external works that may need separate permission, nutrient neutrality in affected catchments, and the nationally described space standard can all still apply, so the saving should be appraised against the costs that remain.

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Guide June 14, 2026 9 min read

Converting Commercial to Residential: The Class MA Permitted Development Route (2026)

Q: What changed for Class MA on 5 March 2024?

Two restrictions were removed in England. The previous 1,500 square metre floorspace cap was removed, so there is now no upper limit on the floorspace that can be converted. The requirement for the building to have been vacant for a continuous period of at least three months was also removed, so occupied, trading buildings can now apply. The two-year lawful Use Class E history requirement was unchanged.

Class MA lets you change a commercial building in Use Class E to homes without a full planning application, subject to prior approval. Here is what qualifies after the 5 March 2024 changes, what the local planning authority can still refuse on, and how to check a building before you commit capital.

Short answer first

Class MA is a permitted development right that lets you change the use of a commercial building from Use Class E to residential (Use Class C3) without a full planning application, provided you secure prior approval from the local planning authority first. The building must have been in Use Class E, or a use now falling within Class E, for a continuous period of at least two years before the date of the application, and must have been in lawful use.

The right was widened on 5 March 2024 in England. The previous 1,500 square metre floorspace cap was removed, so there is now no upper limit on the floorspace you can convert, and the requirement for the building to have been vacant for at least three months was removed, so occupied, trading buildings can now apply. That brought a much larger pool of shops, offices and other commercial premises into scope.

Class MA is not a free pass. The local planning authority can refuse prior approval on a defined list of matters, the right does not apply to listed buildings or to land under an Article 4 direction, and many authorities have moved to switch it off in defined areas. Before you pay for measured surveys or a prior approval application, it is worth checking whether the route is even available on the building in front of you.

Order a Site Screening or see a sample Site Intelligence report.

What Class MA actually permits

Class MA sits in the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Schedule 2, Part 3, Class MA. It permits a change of use from Use Class E to Use Class C3 dwellinghouses.

Use Class E is the broad commercial, business and service class introduced in 2020. It covers shops, offices, cafes, restaurants, professional services, gyms, nurseries and health centres, among others. Use Class C3 is residential, the standard dwellinghouse class. So Class MA is the bridge from a high-street or commercial use into homes.

Because it is permitted development rather than a full planning application, the process is a prior approval application rather than a full determination on planning merits. You apply to the local planning authority, the authority considers a defined and limited set of matters, and it normally determines the application within 56 days. If it does not refuse prior approval within that period on the specified matters, the development can proceed. The set of matters the authority can consider is narrower than the open planning balance that applies to a full application, which is the central attraction of the route.

For a broader view of when permitted development sits alongside a full application, see our guide on what reports you need for planning permission.

What changed on 5 March 2024

Two restrictions that previously kept many buildings out of Class MA were removed in England on 5 March 2024. The change materially widened the route.

Condition	Before 5 March 2024	From 5 March 2024
Floorspace cap	Up to 1,500 square metres of floorspace could be converted	No upper floorspace limit; larger buildings now qualify
Vacancy requirement	Building had to have been vacant for a continuous period of at least three months	Removed; occupied, trading buildings can now apply
Qualifying use period	Use Class E (or a use now within Class E) for the qualifying period	Unchanged: at least two continuous years in Use Class E before the application date

The practical effect is that a trading shop or office can now be brought forward for conversion without first being emptied, and a building above the old 1,500 square metre threshold is no longer excluded on size alone. For investors and landowners, that opens a wider set of standing commercial assets to a residential conversion appraisal. The two-year lawful-use test remains the gateway, so the history of the building still needs confirming before you rely on the route.

The qualifying conditions, step by step

A building has to clear several gateways before Class MA is available. Treat these as a checklist, and confirm anything you are unsure of with the local planning authority before committing capital.

Use Class E history. The building must have been in Use Class E, or in a use now falling within Class E, for a continuous period of at least two years before the date of the application.
Lawful use. That use must have been lawful. A use carried on in breach of planning control does not count toward the qualifying period.
Not excluded by location or designation. The right does not apply to listed buildings or land within their curtilage, scheduled monuments, safety hazard areas, military explosives storage areas, sites of special scientific interest, or anywhere covered by an Article 4 direction.
Prior approval secured. You must apply for and obtain prior approval on the specified matters before the change of use takes place.
Space standard met. New homes created under Class MA must meet the nationally described space standard.

The two-year and lawful-use tests are where appraisals most often need evidence the seller does not have to hand. Rating records, lease history and planning history all help to establish them, and a desktop check can flag early whether the history is clean or needs further investigation.

What the local planning authority can still refuse on

Prior approval is not a rubber stamp. The authority considers a defined list of matters, and a refusal on any of them stops the scheme as proposed. The matters are narrower than a full planning application, but they are real, and several of them frequently drive refusals or design changes.

Prior approval matter	What the authority is testing
Flooding risk	Whether the site is at risk of flooding and whether residential use is appropriate there.
Contamination risk	Whether the land is contaminated and what that means for residential occupation.
Noise from commercial premises	The impact of noise from nearby commercial premises on the future residents.
Natural light	The provision of adequate natural light to all habitable rooms of the new dwellings.
Industrial and storage areas	The impact of introducing residential use into an area the authority considers important for general or heavy industry, storage or distribution.
Conservation area ground-floor loss	In a conservation area, the impact of the loss of a ground-floor commercial use.

Natural light is a common stumbling block on deep-plan office and retail floorplates, where habitable rooms can end up too far from a window. Flood risk and contamination both require evidence the authority will scrutinise, and the noise matter matters most where the building sits among trading commercial neighbours. The authority normally determines prior approval within 56 days, so the strength of the submission on these points shapes the outcome inside a tight window.

For the catchment-specific issue that can still bite a residential conversion, see our guide on nutrient neutrality catchments.

Where Class MA does not apply

The right is switched off in several situations regardless of how attractive the conversion looks. A building can pass the use and floorspace tests and still be outside Class MA because of where it sits or what direction covers it.

Listed buildings and land within their curtilage.
Scheduled monuments.
Safety hazard areas and military explosives storage areas.
Sites of special scientific interest.
Anywhere covered by an Article 4 direction that removes Class MA.

The Article 4 point is the one that catches investors out most often. Many local planning authorities, particularly London boroughs, have made or are making Article 4 directions that remove Class MA in defined areas, often to protect office floorspace or town-centre commercial frontages. An Article 4 direction does not show up in the legislation; it is a local instrument, so availability has to be checked on the specific building against the relevant authority. A building on one side of a borough boundary may have the right; the building opposite may not.

This is also where the difference between permitted development and a full application becomes a strategy decision rather than a technicality. If Class MA is removed locally, a full planning application may still be the right route, and that is the point at which a planning consultant earns their fee. Our guide on when you need a traditional planning consultant sets out where that line sits.

The wider costs Class MA does not switch off

Class MA changes the planning route. It does not switch off everything else that a residential building has to satisfy. Because the conversion is permitted development rather than a full application, two of the larger policy levies fall away, but several other requirements remain.

Because it is permitted development, Class MA does not trigger affordable housing requirements or Biodiversity Net Gain. That is a genuine saving against a full residential application on the same footprint. What remains is still substantial.

Building regulations. The converted building must meet building regulations, which on a commercial-to-residential conversion can be significant for structure, fire, sound, insulation and means of escape.
External works. Any external alterations, such as new windows, doors or changes to the elevation, may need separate planning permission in their own right; Class MA covers the change of use, not unrestricted external change.
Nutrient neutrality. In affected catchments, nutrient neutrality requirements can still apply to new residential units and must be addressed.
The nationally described space standard. Every new home created must meet the space standard, which constrains how many units a given floorplate can sensibly yield.

The honest appraisal nets these against the saving on affordable housing and Biodiversity Net Gain. On a deep-plan or constrained building, building regulations and the space standard can be the binding constraints on yield, not the planning route. For the full buyer-stage workflow that sits around this, see our development land due diligence guide.

How to check a building before you commit

The sequence that protects capital is to test availability and the obvious refusal risks at desktop stage, before instructing measured surveys or preparing a prior approval application. Most of the inputs are in public records.

Confirm the Use Class E history and lawful use over the qualifying two-year period. Check for an Article 4 direction on the building against the relevant local planning authority, because that single point can remove the route entirely. Check listed status, conservation area position, and the location-based exclusions. Then screen the headline prior approval risks, principally flood risk, contamination, and whether the floorplate can deliver adequate natural light to habitable rooms within the space standard.

If the desktop check comes back clean, you can instruct the measured survey and prior approval application with confidence. If it comes back with an Article 4 direction, a listed designation or a flood or contamination flag, you have learned that cheaply, before paying for surveys that confirm what the desktop already showed. A site feasibility study takes the analysis further where the headline screen is encouraging and you want scheme options and a value position before committing.

Order a Site Screening before you instruct surveys

A desktop Site Screening checks whether Class MA is even available on a building before you pay for measured surveys or a prior approval application. It tests the points that decide the route: Article 4 directions, listed status, flood risk and contamination risk, alongside the wider constraint picture.

Inputs: postcode, building address or red-line boundary, current use, intended residential unit count.
Turnaround: 48 hours.
Deliverable: availability check on the Class MA route, constraint flags, and the points to confirm with the local planning authority.

Site Screening from £199 in 48 hours. It informs a prior approval submission; it does not replace your planning consultant, your architect or your surveyor, and a named or chartered sign-off is an optional add-on rather than the standard. The price ladder runs from £199 to validate availability, £995 for the feasibility upgrade with scheme options, and £2,495 for full pre-application preparation where a full planning route is in play.

Order a Site Screening · See a sample report

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