Planning in London

Fees Planning fees to rise up to 185%

Planning fees for large schemes are planned to increase from £11,000 to £28,500 in April next year with planning authorities that meet their targets for determining major applications winning the right to increase the new fees by a further 10% to help them meet more of their costs, planning minister Keith Hill has announced.

'For many years the planning system has been underfunded, and while the massive cash boost we have given in the form of the planning delivery grant has helped, we still have a situation where the fees that councils can charge are far short of the costs of dealing with applications, especially the larger ones, said Hill. For that reason, we are inviting all users of the planning system developers, councils and the general public, to give us their views on a package of proposals to increase fees sensibly, and proportionately.

We are not asking that smaller developers and householders pay huge increases. The increases are designed to fall differentially on applicants. For example a small business which acquired a new property and needed to apply for a change of use permission would see a fee increase from £220 to £240. Similarly for householder applications. Authorities that allow applications to be made online will be able to reduce those fees to encourage efficiency in the system. Any increase in fees must be accompanied by a raising of the bar when it comes to quality. We don't expect people to pay more and get less. Councils will be encouraged to work harder to meet Government targets, and those with e-planning capabilities have the choice to reflect some of their efficiency savings back to the applicant, said Hill.

'We want to ensure that, like Planning Delivery Grant, fees helps authorities to improve their services at the same time as they increases their resources, and that users of the system get a better services as a result. However, it is admitted that the PDG will be run down as the higher fees are introduced.

The ACA is campaigning for the return of fees when deadlines are missed, and for competition in the processing of applications before they are submitted to the local planning authority, a precedent successfully set with building control applications. Carl Powell, until recently director of planning at Westminster says: A completely outsourced planning service cannot be far away, with officers paid by the private sector to process applications and make recommendations, although the final authority would stay with the council. ODPM consultations end on 9th December.