Phoenix Journal · Kitchens
Planning consent and licensing are two separate hurdles for any new commercial kitchen, and the extraction system sits at the heart of both. Here is how to weigh an existing unit against a fresh conversion, and clear each regime without stalling your opening.
Setting up
Before a single pan hits the hob, a commercial kitchen has to clear two very different hurdles - planning consent for what you are doing to the building, and licensing for what you are selling from it.
People often treat these as one job, then get caught out when the council's planning team and its licensing team turn out to want completely separate things. Planning is about the physical premises - whether the use is allowed, and whether the extraction, ductwork and flue you bolt to the outside are acceptable to neighbours. Licensing and registration are about the trade itself - registering as a food business, and holding a premises licence if you sell alcohol or serve hot food late at night.
It helps to picture the two teams you will deal with. The planning authority cares about the fabric of the building and its impact on the street - the use class, the size of the operation, the number of covers, and above all the extraction that carries heat, steam and smells outside. Environmental health and licensing care about how you run the trade - food safety, the hours you open, and whether you sell alcohol or hot food late at night. One can grant what the other refuses, so you have to satisfy both in parallel rather than assuming a nod from one clears the other.
The single biggest decision that shapes how much of this you have to deal with is the unit you choose. Take on a former restaurant or takeaway with consent and extraction already in place, and much of the heavy lifting is done. Start with a bare shell and you carry every application yourself. Below we weigh the two routes so you can see what each really costs you in time, risk and paperwork - and where the extraction system sits at the heart of both.
This is the former chippy, cafe or restaurant that already trades as a food premises, with a planning history for hot-food use and an extraction system running up the outside wall. You inherit the consent and, usually, the ductwork.
Here you start with a shop, office or shell in Class E and build the kitchen from scratch - which means you drive every planning question and every licence yourself, extraction included.
Whichever route you choose, the extraction system is the thread running through both planning and fire safety. A well-planned kitchen also needs a workable escape strategy around all that hot equipment, which is why it pays to read our note on evacuation planning for a busy restaurant alongside your fit-out drawings.
Three thresholds crop up again and again, and missing any one of them can stall an opening. Registering as a food business is free but must be done well ahead of trading; the extraction discharge has a recognised target height; and hot food served into the small hours pulls you into the licensing regime whether you sell a drop of alcohol or not.
Registration with your council's environmental health team is the one step no kitchen can skip - it is separate from planning and from any premises licence, and it triggers your first food hygiene inspection. Building work should follow Approved Document F for ventilation, and the extract system should be designed and later maintained to TR19 Grease so that fire risk stays low and your insurer stays happy. If you plan to sell alcohol or provide regulated entertainment as well, that alcohol permission sits inside the same Licensing Act 2003 premises licence, with its own 28-day consultation and a public notice displayed at the premises throughout.
Get the sequence right - register early, plan the extraction to disperse cleanly, and line up any late-night or alcohol licence before fit-out finishes - and the two regimes stop fighting each other. Get it wrong, and the extraction outlet you cannot move becomes the reason the whole opening slips.
Questions
Very often, yes. Moving between uses within Class E may not need permission, but bolting extraction ductwork and a flue to the outside is a physical external alteration that is assessed separately. Councils look closely at the discharge height, fan noise and odour control, so budget time for a dedicated application even where the use itself is allowed.
There is no single legal figure, but the widely used DEFRA and EMAQ risk-assessment approach favours discharging vertically upward, ideally around one metre above the roof ridge, so smells and grease-laden air disperse cleanly. Low-level or eaves-level outlets score poorly and are a common reason planning is refused or an odour condition is imposed.
You must register your food business with the local authority at least 28 days before you start to trade, and it is free. That registration is completely separate from a premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003, which you only need if you sell alcohol, provide regulated entertainment, or serve hot food or drink between 11pm and 5am. Many kitchens need registration but no premises licence at all.
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