Change of use
If you want to use a building or unit differently, we will confirm what permission you need and prepare the application, including prior approvals.
Commercial · Sheffield
Commercial planning consultants in Sheffield
Whether you are taking on a lease, changing how your premises are used or finding room to grow, it helps to know the planning position before you commit. Some changes need no application at all, some need a ‘prior approval’, where the Council looks at a few set matters, and others need full planning permission.
We work across Sheffield with businesses, landlords and developers. In most cases we can tell you early on which route applies to your premises, what it will involve and how long you should allow.
Key contact
Richard Pigott
Managing Director – Chartered Town Planner
How we can help
Commercial planning in Sheffield
If you are planning a commercial project, it is likely to fall into one or more of the four areas below. In each case, we will explain the route and the likely timescale before any work begins.
Employment and industrial
When your business needs more room, we can help you extend your premises or plan new ones, from small workshops to logistics buildings.
Retail and hospitality
If you are opening a shop, café, restaurant or bar, we can advise on the use, the shopfront and any signs, which often need advertisement consent of their own.
Mixed use and regeneration
For larger schemes that bring homes, workspace and other uses together, we set out the planning strategy with you and coordinate the specialist reports your application will need.
Local context
Planning in Sheffield
If your plans involve an existing building, the building itself often shapes the planning case as much as the new use does. At Banner Cross Hall in Ecclesall, Sheffield City Council granted permission for the offices to become a school. The hall is a listed building, so we handled the heritage side of the application as well as the planning. A new use for a listed building needs both.
If a condition on an older permission is weighing on your business, the right evidence can sometimes change it. At Wales Bar, which has a Sheffield postcode but falls to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, we secured an amendment to a factory extension for C.W. Fletcher. Our traffic modelling removed a costly requirement for a right-turn lane.
We also help with the everyday side of commercial planning. That might be a change of use for an empty unit, a new shopfront and its signs, or more space for a business that has outgrown its premises. The right route depends on the building’s lawful use, where it sits and what you want to do with it, and we will explain it before you spend anything on drawings.
Our planners work alongside our architects, so if your scheme needs a design as well as a planning case, you can have both from one team. Should a decision go against you, we handle appeals in house, so your case stays with people who already know it.
Establishing the lawful use
What you can do with a building depends on its 'lawful use', the use the planning system recognises, which is not always the use it was last put to. We establish it at the start, ideally before you sign a lease, so you know which routes are open to you.
City centre expectations
In the city centre, the Council pays close attention to how a building is used, how its frontage meets the street and the quality of the design. We shape your scheme around those expectations from the outset, rather than adjusting it after they have been raised with you.
Listed buildings and conservation areas
Where your premises are listed or sit in a conservation area, changes to shopfronts, signs and the building itself are looked at more closely. We prepare the heritage case alongside the planning one, so both are ready when your application goes in.
Neighbours, hours and access
Where a business sits close to homes, the Council will think carefully about noise, opening hours, deliveries and parking, and permission may come with conditions. We look at these with you at the outset, so any conditions are ones your business can work with.
RIBA
RTPI
IHBC
ARB
Recent work
Giving a Sheffield building a new use
Banner Cross Hall, a Grade II listed office building in Ecclesall, now has permission to become a school. We handled the planning and heritage side of the change of use.
Ecclesall Road South, Sheffield
Change Of Use from Office to School – Sheffield
Listed Building and Planning application for the change of use of Banner Cross Hall, a Grade II listed building in
Common questions
Questions businesses ask us
Do I need planning permission to change the use of my premises?
The answer lies in the building’s lawful use and what you would like to use it for, because some moves between uses are allowed without an application and others are not. We can check this for you and tell you what your change will need.
Should I check the planning position before I sign a lease?
It is well worth doing, because a lease can commit you to premises that need a consent you do not yet have. We can look at the unit, confirm what you can use it for and set out what an application would involve, so you go into the negotiation knowing where you stand.
Do I need permission for a new shopfront or signs?
A new or altered shopfront usually needs planning permission, and many signs need advertisement consent, which is a separate application. Both are looked at more closely on a listed building or in a conservation area. We can prepare the two together, with a design that suits your business and the street.
My building is listed. Can it take a new use?
Listed buildings do take on new uses, and the right use can help keep a building cared for. The use needs to suit the building, and any works that affect its special interest will need listed building consent, which is separate from planning permission. We can handle the heritage and planning sides together, so you have one team making both cases.
Which council will decide my application?
Sheffield City Council decides applications for sites inside the city boundary. Some addresses with a Sheffield postcode fall to a neighbouring council. Sites on the city’s western fringe may be inside the Peak District National Park, which has its own planning authority. We will confirm which applies from your address.
How long does a commercial planning application take?
Once the Council has accepted your application as valid, it has eight weeks to decide most schemes and thirteen weeks for major ones. Much of the time before that is spent preparing the application, which is the part you can influence, so we will agree a realistic programme with you at the start.
Wider coverage
Nearby areas we cover
Find us
Our nearest office
Planning & Design Practice — Sheffield
The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX
Sheffield and South Yorkshire
Planning authorities
Commercial planning
Are you planning a commercial project in Sheffield?
Do you have a unit in view, a lease on the table or a site you are weighing up? If you share the address and a few words about the business, we can usually give you a first view of the planning position the same day. There is no fee for that first conversation.