Planning fees shakeup proposed in new consultation

Fee rises of between 20% and 50% for many types of planning application, along with revisions to the charging structure, are put forward in a new Scottish Government consultation released today.

In what is described as the biggest change to the structure of planning fees in over 25 years, ministers are proposing a new approach to how the performance of planning authorities is measured, in the hope that applicants will see improvements to performance in return for having to pay more to obtain planning permission. 

Fees, and in particular the maximum fee, were increased in 2017 but the paper notes that some authorities have benefited much more than others from increased income as a result. It now proposes increasing the maximum planning fee from £125,000 to £150,000 in some circumstances, as well as the per unit fee. It also seeks views on the introduction of charges for discretionary services such as pre-application discussions, enhanced project managed applications, increased fees (at planning authorities' discretion) for retrospective applications and waiving or reducing planning fees, as well as charging for the first time for appeals, and for listed building consent.

The consultation paper also looks at reforming how the performance of the planning system is measured and the role of the National Planning Improvement Co-ordinator. 

"It is important to note that this paper seeks views on how planning fees cover the cost of determining an application", the introduction states. "Although research published by the RTPI has identified that the [Planning (Scotland) Act 2019] will place additional duties on planning authorities, it is not the role of planning fees to cover those new duties unless they relate specifically to the determination of an application. However, it is noted that currently planning fees only account for on average 63% of the cost of determining an application. Therefore, we expect that closing that gap should free up resources for the remainder of the planning service.

"However, we recognise that increasing fees in isolation is not the only solution. We need to look at smarter resourcing and the opportunities which digital services can bring to the planning service such as increasing efficiencies in the preparation and submission of plans and applications."

Click here to access the consultation. The closing date for submissions is 14 February 2020.