Understanding C2 use class, in plain English

The planning system in England sorts buildings by what they are used for. Each category is called a use class. The class matters because changing how a building is used can need planning permission, even when you are not changing the building itself. A big house is a big house, but a big house being run as a care home is a different use in planning terms.

Class C covers residential uses, and it is split up. C2 is the class for residential institutions: care homes, nursing homes, residential schools, residential colleges, training centres and hospitals. The common thread is that people live there and receive care or supervision on the premises, as part of an organised establishment rather than as a household.

Scotland and Wales use their own planning systems, with similar ideas and different labels. This guide describes the position in England, which is where most of our work sits, and we will always tell you when a building is in a different regime.

Four classes come up constantly in our conversations. Here is the short version, side by side.

Some uses do not fit any class at all. Planners call those sui generis, which simply means in a class of its own, and they always need their own permission for a change of use.

This is the single biggest misunderstanding in the sector, so we will say it plainly. Supported living is often not C2. Many supported living schemes operate within C3, and some within C4, because the residents live independently in their own home with support visiting them, rather than living in an institution that provides care on site.

The test is not what the scheme is called. Use class follows the actual model of care and the level of care provided on the premises. A house where six adults hold their own tenancies, cook their own meals and receive a few hours of visiting support each is a very different planning proposition from a home with a staff office, a sleep-in room, waking night cover and care delivered on site around the clock. The first often sits comfortably in C3. The second looks like C2.

Between those two poles there is a genuine grey area, and local authorities take different views within it. Things that push a scheme towards C2 include permanent staff presence, staff facilities built into the layout, registered care delivered on site, residents who could not live there without that care, and a management structure that treats the building as one establishment rather than as someone's home.

What this means in practice: never buy a building on the assumption that calling the scheme supported living removes the planning question, and never assume you need a C2 consent when your model may not require one. Both mistakes are expensive. Get the care model described properly first, then look at planning.

There are three routes, and only three.

1. The use is already lawful. The building is a former care home, or has an existing C2 consent, or has been used that way long enough to be lawful. This is the cleanest position, but it needs checking: a use can be lost if the building has been empty or used for something else for long enough, and a previous consent may carry conditions.
2. Planning permission for a change of use. You apply to the local planning authority to change the building's use to C2. This is the usual route for a large house, a former hotel, a bungalow or a commercial building.
3. No change is needed, because the model genuinely sits inside the existing class. See the supported living section above. Where this is arguable, a lawful development certificate can put the position beyond doubt.

On an application, a local authority typically weighs parking and highway impact, the effect on neighbours in terms of noise and comings and goings, whether the building can take the number of people proposed, the standard of accommodation, access and outdoor space, over concentration where there are already several similar homes nearby, and identified local need for the type of accommodation. A supportive letter from a commissioning team can carry real weight.

Timescales, roughly: eight weeks for a decision on a straightforward application once it is validated, longer if it is complicated or goes to committee, plus preparation time before submission and a further period if you appeal a refusal. Pre-application advice from the authority often saves more time than it costs.

Consent is never guaranteed. Anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing. If your purchase only works with consent, make the purchase conditional on getting it, or accept that you are taking that risk knowingly.

When a provider walks through a building, they are running a mental checklist. Knowing it helps landlords see their building the way a tenant will.

• Bedroom count and sizes. Numbers matter, but so do usable dimensions. A room that is technically a bedroom but cannot take a profiling bed and a hoist is not a bedroom for many services.
• Ensuites and bathrooms. Ensuite provision drives fee rates in elderly care and matters to dignity everywhere. Where ensuites are absent, the ratio of bathrooms to bedrooms becomes critical.
• Communal space. A lounge, a dining area, somewhere to be that is not a bedroom. Homes with no communal space struggle to register and struggle to fill.
• Staff sleep-in room and office. Almost every model needs a room for staff and a lockable space for records and medication. Landlords often forget these, and they usually cost a bedroom.
• Fire strategy and compartmentation. Doors, detection, escape routes, and whether the building can be divided so that a fire in one part does not threaten the rest. This is often the largest single conversion cost.
• Accessibility. Level or ramped access, corridor and doorway widths, whether a lift or stairlift can be installed, and whether ground floor rooms can serve less mobile residents.
• Kitchen and laundry. A domestic kitchen rarely satisfies a commercial service. Laundry needs space, ventilation and a sensible route that does not run dirty linen through living areas.
• Parking. For staff on shift change and visitors. Also one of the most common reasons for a planning objection.
• Location. Public transport for staff and visitors, shops and services within reach, and for some models proximity to a college, a hospital or a town centre.

Care and supported living buildings are usually let on a full repairing and insuring lease, shortened to FRI. That means the tenant carries the cost of repairing and insuring the building, and the landlord receives the rent without those running costs. It is the norm in commercial property and providers expect it.

• Term. Commonly ten to twenty five years. Providers want length because they are investing in registration, staff and reputation at that address. Landlords want length because it underpins value.
• Rent reviews. Often every three or five years, linked to inflation or to open market rent. Upward only review is common but negotiable, and caps and collars are frequently agreed.
• Break clauses. A right for one or both sides to end the lease early on notice. A tenant break weakens the income for a landlord, so expect it to be argued over.
• Repairing obligations. Who fixes the roof, who maintains the plant, and what condition the building must be handed back in. Dilapidations at the end of a lease can be a large number, so both sides should agree a schedule of condition at the start.
• Guarantor and covenant strength. A landlord is really lending the building to a business for fifteen years, so the strength of that business matters. Accounts, trading history, a parent company guarantee or a rent deposit are all normal asks.
• Registration and funding route. A provider's standing with its regulator, and where its income comes from, tells a landlord how likely the rent is to keep arriving. A provider in enforcement, or one reliant on a single contract, is a different risk from one with a spread of local authority placements and a good inspection history.

Both sides should take their own legal advice. Our role is to shape the commercial terms so the deal is worth documenting.

Two regulators come up most. The Care Quality Commission, or CQC, registers and inspects adult social care and health services in England, including care homes and domiciliary care agencies that support people in their own homes. Ofsted registers and inspects children's homes and other children's services.

They register the service, and for a care home they register it at a specific address. That is why registration and planning interact: a provider cannot open until the regulator is satisfied with the premises, the manager and the model, and a regulator will look at whether the use is lawful. Some supported living arrangements are registered as care provided to people in their own homes rather than as a care home, which is another reason the planning position can differ from what the label suggests.

For a landlord, registration status is commercial information. It affects how quickly the building can open, whether the provider can grow, and how secure the rent is.

This is a real section, not a disclaimer. If you are a landlord or investor considering this sector, these are the things that actually go wrong.

• Planning refusal. You buy on the basis that consent will come, and it does not. You are left with a building bought at a price that only made sense with a C2 use.
• Provider failure. Your tenant stops trading. Specialist buildings have a narrower market than ordinary houses, so re-letting can take months, and you may need to fund the building in the meantime.
• Void periods. Between tenants, or before the first tenant opens, you carry the costs with no rent coming in.
• Funding and commissioning changes. Local authority budgets, placement policy and framework contracts change. A model that works this year can be squeezed next year.
• Reinstatement costs. If the use ends, converting a building back to something else, or bringing it up to a different standard, is rarely cheap.
• Refurbishment overruns. Fire works, drainage, accessibility and services routinely cost more than a first estimate, particularly in older buildings.
• Exit liquidity. Specialist property with a specialist tenant appeals to a smaller pool of buyers. Plan on the basis that selling may take longer than a residential sale.
• Regulatory risk on the operator side. An enforcement action against your tenant affects their income and therefore yours, even if the building is faultless.

We raise these in the first conversation rather than the last. If a deal only works when nothing goes wrong, it is not a deal we would put our name to.

Myth: Supported living is guaranteed, government backed income.

It is not. Public money often funds care, and sometimes housing costs, but your rent comes from your tenant. If the provider stops trading or loses placements, the guarantee you thought you had was always a commercial covenant.

Myth: Any big house can become a care home.

Size is the easy part. Bedroom dimensions, communal space, staff accommodation, fire compartmentation, accessibility, parking and the local authority's view all decide it. Plenty of large houses will never work.

Myth: Planning is a formality.

Applications get refused, including in areas of obvious need, usually on parking, neighbour impact, over concentration or the standard of accommodation proposed.

Myth: If the care is registered, the planning is fine.

They are separate systems with separate tests. You can be registered and still be in breach of planning control, and you can have consent and still fail registration.

Myth: A long lease means the income is safe for the whole term.

A long lease is only as strong as the business signing it. Look at the covenant, the guarantor, the trading history and the break clauses before you value the term.

C2

Use class for residential institutions: care homes, nursing homes, residential schools, hospitals.

C2A

Use class for secure residential institutions, such as prisons and secure hospitals.

C3

Use class for dwellinghouses. A single household, including up to six people living together where care is provided.

C4

Use class for small houses in multiple occupation: three to six unrelated people sharing facilities.

Sui generis

Latin for in a class of its own. A use that does not fall into any use class, so a change to or from it needs permission.

FRI

Full repairing and insuring. A lease where the tenant carries repair and insurance costs.

CQC

Care Quality Commission. Registers and inspects adult social care and health services in England.

Ofsted

Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills. Registers and inspects children's homes and children's services.

Void

A period when a property is empty and producing no rent.

Covenant

In leasing, the financial strength and reliability of the tenant standing behind its promises in the lease.

Supported living

A model where people hold their own tenancy and receive support, rather than living in a registered care home. Often C3 or C4 rather than C2.

Semi independent

Accommodation with support for young people, commonly aged sixteen and over, who do not need a registered children's home.

EBD

Emotional and behavioural difficulties. Used to describe services supporting people with those needs.

Respite

Short term care that gives a person, or their regular carer, a temporary break.

Dilapidations

The landlord's claim at the end of a lease for the cost of putting the building back into the agreed condition.