The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 were made on 8th November 2023 and come into force on 6th December 2023 which means changes to planning fees which will affect all applications.
These can be summarised as (from 6th December 2023):
An increase of 35% for all major planning applications (this will catch all applications, for immediate example, which are greater than a hectare);
- An increase of 25% for all other applications (householders, change of use, everything!);
- Annual inflation related adjustment to planning fees, starting from April 2025;
- Removal of the “free-go” repeat application for applications from this date (anything which currently qualifies can still utilise the free-go for a resubmission if required);
- Planning Guarantee for non-major applications reduces to 16 weeks (currently 26 weeks). This means that the planning application fee must be refunded to applicants where no decision has been made within 16 weeks, unless a longer time period is agreed in writing between the applicant and the local planning authority).
It will be an interesting shift to see how the increased fees impact upon the service levels provided by Councils and it is something which needs to be kept in mind when budgeting for new projects which will be submitted after this date.
Evidently if we have any outstanding fee quotations for projects which have not yet been started, and we have given you an indication of planning fees to the local authority, this needs to be taken into account as those fees will now increase as outlined above. If you have any queries, please do get in touch.