Costs, Fees and Budgeting – Page 3
What planning applications, reports, surveys and appeals cost, with published fee schedules.
Costs, Fees and Budgeting articles – page 3
353 articlesCommuted sums for open space maintenance explained
Councils price open space maintenance as area by annual rate by commutation period, then ask for it as a lump sum in the section 106 agreement. Here is how the figure is built and how the drafting changes what you pay.
Budgeting a public exhibition for a major scheme
An exhibition that produces a photograph of a full room and no analysis has spent money without buying anything. The budget should follow what the statement has to prove.
Certificate C and D: notice and advertising costs
Certificates C and D are the only ownership certificates that require advertising, and the newspaper notice decides your submission date rather than the other way round.
Nutrient credits and what drives their price
A nutrient credit buys a legally secured, monitored reduction held for the lifetime of your development in the same catchment. Price follows from land value, duration and the budget calculation.
Hazardous waste consignment costs on a demolition
On a demolition budget the line that moves most is the classification of the material, not the tonnage. Here is how consignment notes, tax bands and on-site reuse change the total.
Resubmit or appeal after refusal: comparing real costs
The free second application and the appeal both cost nothing to lodge. Where the money really goes, and how to read a refusal reason to pick the right route.
Section 278 costs: fees, bonds and commuted sums
On most section 278 schemes the kerbs and tarmac are the cheaper half. Where the rest of the money goes, and how to price it before the access drawing is fixed.
Testing a section 106 monitoring fee that looks high
A monitoring fee is tied to the authority's estimated cost over the lifetime of the obligation, not to the value of the contributions. Here is how to test the number.
Levy surcharges and the cost of a missed notice
Missing a levy notice costs a fixed surcharge, interest, and often the right to pay by instalments. Here is each surcharge, the appeal route and the checklist that prevents it.
Claiming the self-build levy exemption without losing it
The self-build exemption from the Community Infrastructure Levy is usually lost on paperwork, not on the building. Here is the sequence, the deadlines and the disqualifying events.
Budgeting biodiversity units and statutory credit prices
Statutory credits sit at the bottom of the hierarchy and are priced to stay there. How to budget baseline units, spatial and temporal discounts and the 30 year liability.
What a planning agent charges and what you get
An agent's fee is separate from the council's application fee, the drawings and any specialist report. Here is what a householder quote usually covers, what it excludes, and where the saving is real.
Budgeting a change of use application for a business
Movement within Class E costs nothing, so the first spend should establish the lawful use. Here is where the rest of a change of use budget actually goes.
Monitoring fees and compliance costs after permission
Obligations and conditions keep generating cost long after the decision notice. Here is what monitoring fees may lawfully cover and what to negotiate at heads of terms.
Costing the sequential and exception tests for flooding
A flood sequential test is priced by its search area, not its page count. Here is what drives the cost, where the availability evidence comes from, and how to avoid paying for the work twice.
Budgeting a conversion: structural and asbestos surveys
Conversion survey cost turns on whether the survey opens things up. Here is what structural and asbestos investigations cover, when each is needed, and the costs that only appear on site.
What a Gateway One fire statement costs to produce
A Gateway One fire statement is quick to write and expensive to get wrong. Here is what the prescribed form needs, what drives the fee, and the design decisions to take first.
Costing a topographical and measured building survey
Survey prices depend on extent, detail, deliverables and access. Here is how to write a brief that produces comparable quotes, and the omissions that force a return visit.
Air quality damage cost contributions explained
An air quality contribution is emissions multiplied by a published cost per tonne multiplied by a number of years. Here is how the figure is built, what cuts it, and the tests it has to satisfy.
Costing a noise survey and assessment
Survey duration, night-time attendance and repeat visits dominate the cost of a BS 4142 assessment. Here is how the fee breaks down, what quotes usually leave out, and how to scope it with environmental health.
Costing a thirty year habitat management obligation
The biodiversity gain condition requires habitat to be maintained for at least thirty years. Pricing it as establishment, management, monitoring and authority fees stops year twenty becoming a surprise.
VAT on conversions and professional fees in a budget
The VAT rate on building work is fixed by what the property was, not by what you are doing to it. The conversion and empty home reliefs, the blocked items, and why design fees sit outside them.
The cost of a refusal: resubmission against appeal
Design out what can be designed out and appeal only what turns on planning judgement. A comparison of fees, deadlines, professional time and the risk of a section 70A refusal to determine.
What drives the price of off-site biodiversity units
The metric multipliers, not the headline rate, decide the cost of off-site biodiversity net gain. Spatial risk alone can double the number of units required.
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