To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what regulations or guidelines cover the proportion of the produce sold in a shop attached to a farm or smallholding which is required to have been grown on the farm or holding, in connection with planning requirements.
There are no hard and fast rules but guidance is included in the new planning policy guidance note 7, "The Countryside and the Rural Economy". It is normally assumed that the use of a farm shop only for the sale of goods produced on that farm or smallholding is a use which is ancillary to the use as a farm/smallholding not requiring planning permission, whereas use as a farm shop selling a significant amount of "imported" produce amounts to a use on its own account and is therefore subject to planning control.