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Paper 1 · Lesson 1 — Planning and Foreign Ownership

Change of use

When a change in the use of premises needs planning permission / a lodgment; material change of use vs ancillary use.

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Question 1

A tenant wants to run a childcare centre out of a bungalow for three years while a nearby school is rebuilt, and a factory owner wants to run a pub out of part of his warehouse for a two-year trial. Each has held off because he believes a change of use, once approved, is permanent — that the bungalow and the warehouse would be tied to the new use for good and could never revert.

Which statement is correct?

  1. A. Each may obtain a temporary change of use, for a period the authority sets.
  2. B. Neither may do so; a change of use, once approved, is always permanent.
  3. C. Only the tenant may do so; a temporary change cannot be granted from an industrial use.
  4. D. Each may do so, but only for the whole life of the business, never a fixed term.
Show the answer and full explanation

Answer: A

The rule. A change of use may be temporary as well as permanent. A temporary change of use is granted for a period the planning authority decides, after which the premises revert.

Why A is correct. Both the childcare use of the bungalow and the pub use of the warehouse can be granted as temporary changes for a fixed period.

The other options.

  • B denies any temporary change.
  • C excludes the industrial-origin case, which the warehouse pub disproves.
  • D denies a fixed term.

Exam note. Temporary change of use is real, and it is not limited to one kind of starting use — a warehouse and a bungalow can each get one for a set period.

A change of use may be temporary as well as permanent →

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