Chief Planning Officer, Joanna Averley, in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHUC) has summarised the increase in Planning Fees from 6 December 2023 to ‘facilitate increased investment in the Planning Service and to lead to an improved service’.
image for illustration – Open Government Licence v3.0
… Increase planning application fees by [up to] 35%…
Joanna Averley, Chief Planner writes in an email to Chief Planning Officers:
….Following debates in Parliament, the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 have been approved and made on 8th November.
The regulations can be viewed here http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/uksi/2023/1197.
The regulations do the following:
- Increase planning application fees by 35% for applications for major development and 25% for all other applications.
- Introduce an annual indexation of planning applications fees, capped at 10%, from 1 April 2025.
- Remove the fee exemption for repeat applications (the ‘free-go’). An applicant will still be able to benefit from a free-go if their application was withdrawn or refused in the preceding 12 months, subject to all other conditions for the free-go being met.
- Reduce the Planning Guarantee for non-major planning applications from 26 to 16 weeks.
- Introduce a new prior approval fee of £120 for applications for prior approval for development by the Crown on closed defence sites.
The new fees will come into force from the start of 6th December 2023.
An applicant will still be able to benefit from a free-go if their application has been refused or withdrawn in the preceding 12 months, subject to all other conditions for the free-go being met.
Local planning authorities should make arrangements to update their websites etc to reflect these changes to planning fees. The Planning Portal will also be ready to implement the new fees, where they receive applications on your behalf.
For more background see Planning guidance: letters to chief planning officers and Fees for planning applications
