Planning Application Fee Increase
Planning fees across England are set to jump massively as ministers seek to ensure that the planning system is better resourced.
Under the move, announced in the government’s response to the Commons’ Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee inquiry into the future of the planning system, the government has announced plans to adjust planning application fees annually in line with inflation, following an initial rise of up to 35 per cent this summer. Any additional funds raised by the proposed fee increases are to be ring fenced for use by local authority planning teams.
The proposed changes can be broken down to three categories: increases, new fees, and local authority support and other benefits.
Increases
- The fees for major applications would increase by 35%
- Non-major applications would see their price increase by 25%.
- Planning fees would be adjusted in relation to inflation once a year
- Fees for retrospective applications would double
- Repeat applications would no longer benefit from a ‘free go’, meaning they would have to pay fees again
New fees
- Additional fees would be introduced for ‘fast track’ services
- A prior approval fee would be brought on for the permitted development right that allows the Crown to develop sites within a closed defence site perimeter
- Local authority support and other benefits
Additional planning fee income would be ring-fenced
- Money would go towards building planning capacity and capability within local authorities – and address issues around recruitment and retention
- The planning guarantee would reduce from 26 weeks to 16 weeks for non-major applications
- Increasing monitoring of performance measures to improve quality of the local authority planning service
The proposed changes are aimed at improve the performance of local planning authorities in capacity and capability and introducing more robust performance regime.
The increase will be substantial – 35 per cent for major applications and 25 per cent for all others. This means, for example, that the typical householder application would rise from £206 to £258. Furthermore, the regime proposes that planning fees should be adjusted annually in line with inflation. On the whole, the proposed increase in planning fees is welcomed; Local Planning Authorities have for many years been struggling attracting suitably experienced staff. The lack of Local Authority resource has led to a degreaded service with local authorities being significantly under resourced. And it is hoped that this consultation and proposals will be the first step in much needed improvements to the public planning sector service.
In practice, the application fee paid to the local authority is a small proportion of the total cost to a developer of a planning application. Developers will support fee increases where this is coupled with a demonstrably improved service delivering faster decision making.
