Planning and building

Overview

Following debates in Parliament, the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 were approved and made on 8 November.

In practice, this means:

• A 25% increase in planning application fees across the board
• A 35% increase in fees for major schemes
• The ‘free go’ on resubmissions will be removed (further details below)
• There will be an annual rise in fees every April from 2025 onwards.

These changes take effect from 6 December 2023.

Applications that have not been submitted prior to the change (i.e. the close of business, 1700 on Tuesday 5 December 2023), will be subject to the increased fees. 

For users of the Planning Portal, this will include any applications that are in draft or that have not had their payment completed (including nominated payments, or where bank transfers or cheques have not yet been processed). 

Applicant can still benefit from a "free-go" if their application has been refused or withdrawn in the preceding 12 months, subject to all other conditions for the free-go being met.

More details

Details of the new fee schedule and changes can be found on the Planning Portal