Government changes legislation to introduce higher planning fees.
by Fytche-Taylor Planning Team, 14th November 2023

The Government have formally introduced changes to existing legislation that will alter how planning application fees are calculated.  This will result in increased fees for all applications made from 6th December 2023.  The amendments have introduced other important changes too that could affect you and your future planning applications – as summarised below.

• All planning application fees will be increasing by at least 25%.
• Major developments are set to rise higher still, with a 35% increase in the fees for major schemes (based on the legislative interpretation of ‘major development’).
• The ‘free go’ will vanish completely - the current provision for a ‘free go’ when resubmitting an application will be removed. Any applications that were already eligible for a free resubmission prior to the change (i.e. before 6th December 2023) will still be entitled to do so, within the prescribed time limits.
• A new prior approval fee is being introduced for the permitted development rights for ‘development by the Crown on a closed defence site’.
• Annual Fee Increase - As well as introducing these changes, the legislative amendment establishes an index-linked annual rise in application fees (capped at 10%).  This will apply every April from 2025 onwards.  This means that planning fees will not remain static as they have done in the past, and new projects should carefully consider planning application fees when setting the timescales and target submission date for a new application.

A further notable change relates to the little used ‘planning guarantee’.  This reduces the period after which any non-major applications (including householder developments) are eligible to receive a full refund of the planning fee.  This will come down to 16 weeks, shortened from the 26-week period at present.   The 26-week period remains ‘as is’ in all other cases.

More information on planning fees can be found on the Planning Portal here (opens in new link).