Draft proposals to amend some planning application fees were submitted to parliament on 13 January 2025, and are expected to be introduced from 1 April (pending parliamentary approval). Key amendments include significant increases to fees for householder applications and prior approvals. The changes are summarised below.

In line with the changes to planning fees introduced in December 2023, all planning fees are subject to indexation (annual increases to account for inflation) of 1.7% (and rounded to the nearest pound). The fees which may be amended as part of the current proposed changes are not subject to this increase, and would next be increased in this way on 1 April 2026.

Householder applications

• Enlargement, improvement or other alteration of a single dwellinghouse: £258 to £528

• Enlargement, improvement or other alteration of two or more dwellinghouses: £509 to £1,043

Please note that the £258 fee for householder developments related to small-scale operations within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse is not changing

Prior Approvals

• Prior approval applications that don’t involve building operations: £120 to £240

• Prior approval applications that involve building operations: £258 to £516

• Prior approvals relating to the change of use of Class E uses to residential (under Class MA): £125 per dwellinghouse to £250 per dwellinghouse

• Prior approvals related to the construction of new dwellinghouses: fees unchanged

Section 73 Applications (removal or variation of a condition)

Amendment to a three-tier fee structure, as follows:

• £86 for householder applications

• £586 for non-major development

• £2,000 for major development

Discharge of Conditions

Application for approval of details reserved by condition:

• Householder: £43 to £86

• Other development: £145 to £298

• Other: submission of a Biodiversity Gain Plan is increasing from £145 to £298

Other planning fee changes

Full application for the erection of a building (where the area of gross floor created exceeds 3,750 square metres) is increasing to £31,385.

Fee for an application for the erection of an agricultural building, where the gross floor space created is between 1,000 metres and 4,215 square metres, is increasing to £5,077, (plus £635 for each additional 75 square metres in excess of 1,000 square metres).