Government consults on planning fees

A NEW system of planning fees which could potentially put a far greater cost burden on property developers is now being consulted upon by the Government.

Local authorities currently charge any person or company submitting a planning application using a fixed sliding scale of fees based on the type and size of projects.

These prices are set nationally by central Government and therefore fail to take into account the differing resources of local councils.

The Department for Communities and Local Government, the body responsible for planning and regeneration, now wants local authorities to decide their own fees.

The DCLG says that councils are unable to recover the true cost of applications due to the national fees, meaning local council tax payers are subsidising the processing costs by making up the shortfall.

While this will be seen as a fairer system for the council tax payer, it could land greater bills on the desks of developers which have previously benefitted from this loophole.

Under the new system, authorities will not be able to make a profit on fees but they will be able to recover the actual cost of submitting an application from those benefiting.

Decentralisation minister Greg Clark MP said: “Having a system where Whitehall dictates to local councils what planning fees they can charge is very unfair.

“Letting councils set their own fees is a much fairer system for both the applicant and the local taxpayer and will ensure there is flexibility in the system to recover the actual costs of applications.”

DCLG is also proposing to allow local authorities to charge for resubmitted applications and to set higher fees for retrospective applications.

The plans have been set out for consultation on the DCLG website and are open for comments until January 7.

If accepted and approved by Parliament, the changes would be implemented from April next year with a six-month transition period until October 2011.