Details of the planning application fee increase on 6th December 2023

Legislative amendments to increase planning application fees in England have now been formally “made” and took effect on 6th December 2023.

The main points affecting how fees are calculated on Planning Portal are that: 

• application fees in England are increased by 25% across the board, which will rise to 35% for major schemes based on the legislative interpretation of ‘major development’.

• the provision for a ‘free go’ on application resubmissions in England has been removed, but individual applications that were already eligible for a free resubmission prior to the change (i.e. before 6th December 2023) will remain so. This will see the number of such exemptions fade out over the 12-month period after the amendments have taken effect.
• a fee was introduced for the prior approval application required, as part of the permitted development rights for ‘development by the Crown on a closed defence site’.

Separately, the amendment introduces an annual rise in application fees linked to inflation (and capped at 10%) every April from 2025 onwards. 

It also tightens the planning guarantee so that undetermined non-major applications (including householder developments) will be eligible to receive a refund after 16 weeks, shortened from the 26-week period which remains ‘as is’ in all other cases. 

What are the new fees? 

We have updated our fee schedule document to show the new fees and related changes to rules and exemptions. 

Changes to Planning Portal 

We updated our system so that the fee calculator is compliant with the increased values ensuring that users can calculate the updated fees correctly. 

We had an outage at the close of business on the last working day that the current fees were in place (1700 on 5th December 2023) to apply the changes and ensure that any submissions after that point utilise the new fee values. 

This is in line with:

• the amending legislation which states that: “the amendments made to the 2012 Fees Regulations…do not apply to…any application…made before the commencement date”; and
• the legislation for online submission of applications (see paragraph 6): “Where the electronic communication is received by the recipient outside the recipient’s business hours, it is taken to have been received on the next working day”

Where possible, for applications that have not been submitted, we have reset any existing fee calculations. This will help ensure that fees are recalculated using the increased values for applications submitted after the change takes effect. 

What this means for applicants and their agents 

As per the detail above, applications that were not submitted prior to the change (i.e. the close of business, 1700 on Tuesday 5th December 2023), will be subject to the increased fees. 

For users of the Planning Portal, this includes 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). 

Our submission notification emails have a ‘Submitted date’ field that can be used to evidence when the submission took place.

Where payment was being made by bank transfer or cheque – Using these methods takes longer for payment to reach us, be processed, and complete. Therefore, when using these methods (either directly or via nomination), we set the following payment deadlines:

• Bank transfer – At least 5 full working days – Make the payment no later than 28 November 2023
• Cheque – At least 10 full working days – Send the cheque using first class post no later than 21 November 2023

Please note that these payment method deadlines were best estimates. We cannot guarantee that following this will have ensured the process completed before the fee increase took place.

Where an application was not submitted prior to the change, you will need to recalculate your fee with the increased values to ensure that the correct payment is made, and fee is valid when received and checked by the Local Authority. 

Additionally, where the payment process has already begun but has not completed (e.g. you have made a nomination that has not yet been actioned), we have cancelled the process and returned the application to a ‘draft’ state. This will allow you to recalculate the application fee and restart the payment process to ensure that the correct amount is paid when the application is submitted to the Local Authority.

What this means for Local Planning Authorities 

Depending how each Local Planning Authority retrieves applications and processes fees from Planning Portal, there will be different periods between the time of submission and the time the applications and payments are shown in their systems.

Our submission notification emails have a ‘Submitted date’ field that can be used to evidence when the submission took place.

Therefore: 

• If the application was submitted prior to the change (before close of business, 1700 on 5th December 2023), you will see these applications arrive with the fees that were correct at the time of submission. These should be accepted as valid.
• You should expect applications submitted after the change takes place to arrive with the new fees.

If you feel the fee for any application is incorrect, you can contact the applicant/agent (and us as required) to request an additional payment as per existing validation practises. 

Frequently asked questions

Please note that the FAQs have now been moved to our main website: