Fees and charges when a permission is nearly expired
You cannot extend an expiring planning permission by varying the time condition. The options are lawful implementation, a fresh application, or losing it, and each carries a different bill.
A planning permission granted in the usual form must be begun within three years of the date of grant, under section 91 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Outline permissions run on section 92: reserved matters within three years, and the development begun within two years of the final approval of reserved matters. When those dates approach there is no renewal button. There is implementation, there is a fresh application, and there is letting it go.
Self-builders reach this point more often than developers, because domestic projects stall for domestic reasons. Understanding which spend keeps the permission alive, and which is wasted, is worth doing eighteen months out rather than six weeks out.
Why section 73 does not help
Section 73 allows an application to develop land without complying with a condition previously imposed. It is the workhorse for changing a materials condition, a hours of use condition or an approved drawing.
Section 73(5) closes the door on time limits. A permission cannot be granted under that section where the effect would be to extend the period within which development must be begun, or within which reserved matters must be applied for. That is the statutory position, and no amount of drafting gets round it.
Between 2009 and 2010 there was a temporary route allowing applications to extend the life of unimplemented permissions granted before a cut off date. It closed. Occasionally an adviser still refers to it. It has not been available for many years.
What actually counts as beginning the development
Section 56(4) lists the material operations that constitute the beginning of development. The usual candidates are a trench dug for a foundation, the laying out of a road or part of one, the laying of any underground main or pipe to the foundations, and demolition work that forms part of the permitted scheme.
Three conditions attach to relying on any of them.
The operation must be genuine and referable to the permission. A trench in the wrong place, or a token scrape with a mini digger and no drawing behind it, invites a later argument that the permission was never implemented. Photograph the work against the approved plans, dated, and keep the contractor's invoice.
It must be lawful. Where the permission carries a condition that has to be discharged before development begins, carrying out the material operation without that discharge means the operation is in breach, and the courts have held that a start made in breach of a condition precedent does not implement the permission. That doctrine has caught many well advised developers.
And it must happen before the expiry date, not on the day after.
The bill for keeping it alive
Costs in the final year fall into a predictable pattern.
| Item | What triggers it | Timing to allow |
|---|---|---|
| Discharge of condition applications | Every pre-start condition on the notice | Up to eight weeks per request |
| Technical reports to satisfy those conditions | Drainage, contamination, ecology, materials, tree protection | Weeks to months, longer if survey seasons apply |
| Groundworks for a material operation | The physical start | Contractor lead time |
| CIL forms and notices | Liability, exemption claims, commencement notice | Before any work starts |
| Building regulations application | Independent of planning, still needed | Allow for plan checking |
The reports are the item that ruins programmes. An ecology condition requiring a bat emergence survey cannot be answered in January, because the survey season for emergence work runs from May to September. A permission expiring in March, with an outstanding ecology condition, is in more trouble than its owner realises.
Where the conditions require technical documents, the full report index shows which of the 66 report types cover the usual pre-start subjects, and PlanScope pricing sets out the free report, the £50 per report option and the Professional tier for anyone producing several drafts.
Discharge of conditions, sequenced properly
- List every condition on the decision notice and mark each as pre-start, pre-occupation or ongoing.
- Work backwards from the expiry date, allowing eight weeks for each discharge decision plus the time to produce the evidence.
- Bundle the pre-start conditions into a single request where the evidence is ready for all of them.
- Submit early enough that a refusal still leaves time to resubmit.
- Only then instruct the groundworks.
Councils will sometimes confirm compliance informally when a deadline is close. An email from a case officer is not a discharge, and a purchaser's solicitor will say so in due course. Get the formal notice.
One refinement is worth knowing. Not every condition worded as though it applies before development is a true condition precedent. The courts distinguish between conditions that go to the heart of the permission and conditions that are merely regulatory, and a start made without discharging the second kind may still be effective. That is a legal argument to have with a solicitor holding the decision notice, and it is a poor plan to rely on in advance. Treat every pre-start condition as fundamental unless advised otherwise in writing.
Fees for discharge requests are set nationally and indexed, so budget from the current schedule rather than from a figure quoted in an old fee note.
The CIL trap on self-build
Where the Community Infrastructure Levy applies, the sequence around the start of works matters as much as the planning conditions. An assumption of liability notice and any exemption claim, including the self-build exemption, must be in place before development begins, and a commencement notice must be submitted to the collecting authority before the first material operation.
Miss the commencement notice and a self-build exemption can be lost entirely, with a surcharge on top. The levy then becomes payable in full on a house somebody intended to live in themselves. It is one of the harshest outcomes in the system and it turns on a form.
Check the council's CIL pages for the current charging schedule and the forms, because rates are indexed and the process varies in detail between authorities.
Reapplying, and what changes when you do
A fresh application for the same scheme is determined against the policy position at the time of the new decision, not the old one. Local plans get adopted. National policy is reissued. Mandatory biodiversity net gain arrived for major development in February 2024 and for small sites in April 2024, so a permission granted before those dates and allowed to lapse may need a biodiversity gain plan on reapplication.
Design guidance may also have moved, and neighbours who did not object first time sometimes do second time.
Illustrative example: an outline permission for a single dwelling has reserved matters approved with fourteen months left to run. Four conditions are pre-start, one of them a contaminated land desk study. The owner submits a single discharge request covering all four in month three, receives approval in month five, orders foundations for month eight, submits the CIL commencement notice a fortnight before the digger arrives and photographs the trench against the approved layout. The permission is implemented with four months in hand. This example is illustrative.
If a fresh application is the right answer, start it early enough to overlap with the old permission rather than after it dies. Enter your postcode on the PlanScope home page to see which reports the site is likely to need under current policy before you commit to that route.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.
PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
Can I extend a planning permission that is about to expire?
Not by varying the time limit condition. Section 73(5) prevents a permission being granted under that section where the effect would be to extend the time within which development must be started or reserved matters applied for. The temporary extension route that existed briefly around 2010 has gone. The realistic options are to implement or to reapply.
What counts as starting development?
Section 56 defines the material operations that begin development, including digging a trench for a foundation, laying out a road, laying underground mains or pipes, and demolition work forming part of the development. The operation has to be genuine and referable to the permitted scheme, and it has to be lawful, meaning any condition precedent is already discharged.
Do I have to pay a fee to reapply for the same scheme?
Usually yes. Fee exemptions for repeat applications have changed with the fee regulations, so check the current schedule on the Planning Portal or with the council before assuming any concession applies. National planning fees are also indexed annually, so the figure quoted in an old quote is unlikely to be the figure you pay.
How much do discharge of condition applications cost?
There is a national fee per request, charged separately for householder and other development, and a request can cover several conditions at once. Councils have up to eight weeks to decide. Bundling conditions into one request normally costs less than submitting them individually, though it does mean one slow condition holds up the rest.
What happens if the permission lapses?
Nothing you built lawfully becomes unlawful, but you cannot rely on the permission to build anything further. A fresh application is then assessed against current policy, which may have changed. On sites where the local plan has moved on, or where biodiversity net gain now applies, the new application can be materially harder than the original.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.