February 15, 2025 / By rachel
The Government has announced a significant increase in planning application fees, set to take effect from April 1, 2025. This means that homeowners, developers, and businesses will be paying much more for planning permissions.
How Much More Will You Pay?
Here are some of the key changes that could affect your project:
- Householder Applications: The fee for altering or extending a single dwelling will more than double, rising from £258 to £528. If the application covers two or more dwellings, the cost jumps from £509 to £1,043.
- Prior Approvals: If you need prior approval (for example, to change a commercial building into residential use), fees are also increasing significantly.
- Flat fees for applications without building work will double from £120 to £240.
- Applications involving building operations will rise from £258 to £516.
- Prior approval fees for converting shops and offices into homes (Class MA) will double from £125 to £250 per dwellinghouse.
- Section 73 Applications (Changes to Existing Permissions):
- Householder applications: £86
- Non-major developments: £586
- Major developments: £2,000
- Discharge of Conditions: If you need approval for details reserved by a planning condition, the cost is increasing:
- Householder applications: from £43 to £86
- Other developments: from £145 to £298
- Biodiversity Gain Plan Submission: This fee is doubling from £145 to £298.
Why Are Fees Going Up?
The increase is intended to provide much-needed funding for Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), which have struggled with underfunding and staff shortages in recent years. The intention is that this will lead to better resourcing and faster processing times. However, currently there is no guarantee that the extra funds will be retained for just planning departments, so we will wait to see if the improvements go to plan.
For the full information, the government legislation is at
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2025/9780348267808/contents