2024 Permitted Development Right Changes for Agricultural Buildings

The UK Government has announced major changes to permitted development rights for agricultural buildings back in May 2024. These changes present huge new opportunities for barn conversion projects, agricultural development, and farm diversification without the need for planning permission.

Changes to permitted development

Legislation changes announced on 30 April 2024 ‘will go a long way to support the agricultural sector and rural communities by providing further flexibility for farmers to undertake works on their agricultural units, which in turn will enable the development of former agricultural buildings, farm diversification, and delivery of new homes without having to submit a formal planning application. These changes relate to:

1. Class Q: Conversions of agricultural buildings to dwellings 
2. Class R: Changes of use of agricultural buildings to flexible commercial uses
3. Part 6: General agricultural permitted development rights for farmers

The new permitted development rights will present new and exciting opportunities for clients in rural areas to maximise the development potential of redundant buildings. For farmers, they will provide greater flexibility to erect and develop buildings suited to modern agricultural practices. 

Changes to Class Q – barns to dwellings

The key changes to Class Q:

• New Class Q legislation will allow a building on an existing agricultural unit and former agricultural buildings previously part of an established agricultural unit to change use to dwelling houses. 
• Up to 10 dwelling houses (formerly five units) will now be allowed to be delivered with 1,000 square metres of floor space (formerly 865 square metres) for change of use. 
• The provisions for more extensive and smaller dwelling houses are replaced by a maximum floor space per dwelling house of 150 square metres. 
• As part of the change of use, the amended right also permits the erection of a single-storey rear extension that does not extend beyond the rear wall of the existing building by more than 4 metres and is on land covered by an existing hard surface.
• To support operations for the change of use, the right now allows protrusions to the external dimensions of the building of up to 0.2 metres to accommodate fixtures and fittings, such as windowsills and guttering. 
  
• In addition, the amended right requires that the existing building (pre-development) must be capable of complying with the nationally described space standards and have existing suitable access to a public highway to benefit from the right.

Changes to Class R - agricultural buildings to flexible commercial uses

1. The changes to Class R, which previously allowed for the change of use of an agricultural building to a maximum of 500m2 of Class E (commercial), B8 (storage and distribution) or C1 (hotel) use, are much more limited:
2. The floor space limited has been doubled to 1000m2
3. The use classes the buildings can change to now include B2 (general industrial), where this is for processing raw goods (excluding livestock) and ancillary goods which are produced and to be sold on site.
   
4. Buildings can also change under Class R to be used for providing agricultural training. Unlike the updated Class Q, the building itself must have been in agricultural use, the time stamp (3 July 2012) has not been brought forward, and only the change of use itself is permitted. This means accompanying operational development to deliver the change of use must still be secured via a separate planning application, and the type of buildings which can benefit has not been expanded. Still, these are useful changes which add further flexibility for agricultural buildings, and again where the previous 500m2 allowance may have been used up