Article 4 directions by council

An Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights in the area it covers — only the classes of development the direction names. For property investors the one that matters most is Class L: the change from a house (use class C3) to a small house in multiple occupation (use class C4, not more than six residents). Where a direction withdraws Class L, that change no longer has permitted development rights.

116 councils have published 7,497 Article 4 direction areas in force to the national planning dataset (planning.data.gov.uk), as of our last update on 25 October 2026. 45 of them have at least one area whose record withdraws Class L.