The Housing White Paper has confirmed that the Government proposes to increase planning fees by as much as 40%. The Paper states:

Local Planning Authorities (LPA’s) will be able to increase fees by 20% from July 2017 if they commit to invest the additional fee income in their planning department. The Government is also minded to allow an increase of a further 20% for those authorities who are delivering the homes their communities need and the government will consult further on these details. Alongside the government will keep the resourcing of local authority planning departments, and where fees can be charged, under review’.

Although at first glance this proposed fee increase looks like a negative inclusion for property developers, there is a growing consensus from all sectors of the development industry that increased fees, if used correctly, will help to boost efficiency and response time within LPA’s. This was an overriding conclusion that came out of a consultation document published alongside the White Paper. This consultation document concluded that planning fees should be increased above inflation with a number of LPA’s calling for localised fee setting.

Another key point to arise from this consultation document is that top performing LPA’s should be given additional fee flexibilities as a way of incentivising performance. The White Paper allows for rises of up to 40% based on performance.

Despite the proposed benefits, there are still concerns over the Government’s decision to make planning fees more flexible. By giving LPA’s the ability to increase their own application fees, there is a danger that there will be a level of inconsistency allowing LPA’s to pick and choose the fees for individual applications without providing sufficient justification. A procedure will therefore be needed to ensure that each application falls within a clearly set fee bracket so that unnecessary delays are not caused through a fee standoff between LPA and applicant.

Moreover there should be a cap in place to prevent LPA’s application fees from becoming unrealistic. If planning fees become too high then there is the potential for developers to be put off submitting applications thus causing further delays to the delivery of housing. More guidance will be required to ensure that application fees are not raised unnecessarily and without clear justification. The Government are due to consult further on these details.

The White Paper also confirms that the government will be consulting on introducing a fee for making planning appeals. The idea being to design a fee which doesn’t discourage legitimate appeals but instead prevents unnecessary appeals which are currently holding up the appeal process.

The current timetable for determining planning appeals is as follows: