Planning Permission required to retail from unit on industrial estate

[rabbit]

A friend is considering setting up a retail type business ( cartridges for printers , stationary etc ) in some spare space that has become available in an industrial unit on an industrial estate. The surrounding units are factories and offices. The rent would be much less than in a town centre location. The landlord would be happy to get the rent in these difficult times, and my friend happy to pay it. The question is ; is there a planning permission law which would forbid him from doing so ....or if he set up could somebody object and then close him down / force him to relocate to a proper location ?

 

[mf1]

I suspect you already know the answer.

Check the planning permission for the unit. Does it permit retail? If yes, no problem. If no, check if planning permission would be needed to operate a retail unit. If yes, then, unless he gets planning permission, the friend takes a big risk on being shut down.

mf

 

[rabbit]

Thanks for that. I will tell him to check with the local govt planning office ( I guess this is the best place to check ) to see if it permits "retail". I thought it may be something of a grey area, as it could be argued that type of business is "business to business" ( as it would be business buyers buying their cartridges or stationary some of the time ). I wondered if planning depts in county councils turned a blind eye on the whole thing sometimes.