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Cornerstone Planning

Government consults on proposals to increase planning fees and to improve performance of local planning authorities

The Government has launched a consultation on proposals to increase planning fees by as much as 35% and make annual adjustments to planning fees based on inflation.

The consultation asks for opinions on reforms that would see planning authorities boost their fees by 35% for major applications and 25% for all other applications.

Further changes that the Government has asked for opinions on include:

  • Additional fees for bespoke or 'fast track' services
  • Ring-fencing additional fees income
  • Doubling fees for retrospective applications
  • Removing the 'free-go' for repeat applications
  • Introducing a prior approval fee for the permitted development right allowing the Crown to develop sites within the perimeter of a closed defence site
  • Building planning capacity and capability within local authorities, including challenges in recruitment and retention, and how these can be addressed
  • Reducing the Planning Guarantee from 26 weeks to 16 weeks for non-major applications
  • Improving the quality of the local authority planning service by monitoring more performance measures.

The Increasing planning fees and performance: technical consultation closes on 25 April.

The proposals come amid warnings from the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) that planning departments are lacking in resources in response to a separate consultation on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework.

The CIH noted that: "Many issues around delays in plan preparation, planning decisions and post planning requirements are down to planning teams being stretched too thinly, rather than necessarily fundamental failings of the planning system itself."

While the LGA said the Government's suggested changes to the planning system would require "significant resources, skills and capacity at a local level to incorporate the changes into plan-preparation and decision-making".

In November 2022, a Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) survey claimed that a £364m reduction in yearly local authority spending on planning had led to "major challenges in resourcing, skills and performance" for planning authorities.

The survey showed that 90% of local authorities were experiencing a backlog of planning enforcement cases.

Adam Carey