Full application fees by floorspace and site area

The fee for a full planning application in England is set by category, and the category is chosen by what the development physically is. Houses are charged per dwelling. Most other buildings are charged on the gross floor space created, in 75 m² steps. Plant, machinery, mineral working and waste are charged on site area in 0.1 hectare steps. Getting the wrong category, or measuring the wrong thing, is one of the commonest reasons an application sits unregistered while the eight or thirteen week clock has not started.

How the fee schedule is built

All of it comes from Schedule 1 to the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012, as amended. The schedule is a list of numbered categories, each with its own unit of measurement and its own band structure. The Planning Practice Guidance chapter on fees explains the structure and links to the current figures.

Do not work from a printed figure. Fees were uplifted in December 2023 and are now indexed annually, with the revised amounts taking effect on 1 April each year. Anything written down in a fee schedule more than a year old is wrong. Check the current schedule before you budget, and check it again before you submit if the submission straddles April.

Measuring the gross floor space created

Gross floor space for fee purposes is measured externally and includes every storey, so external wall thickness, plant rooms, mezzanines and any floor inserted into an existing volume all count. The measurement is of the floor space to be created by the development, which is not the same thing as the net increase in floor space on the site.

That distinction catches people out on demolish-and-rebuild schemes. Where a building is demolished and a replacement erected, councils charge on the full floor area of the new building, because that is what the development creates. The same logic means a change of use that creates no new floor space falls into the flat-fee band rather than the per-75 m² scale, even if the internal works are extensive.

The per-75 m² scale runs from a lower threshold up to a fixed area, above which a base amount applies plus a further amount for each additional 75 m² or part of 75 m². Note the words "or part of", because 76 m² attracts two units, not one and a fraction. Round the measurement up honestly rather than shaving a schedule to land under a step.

Site area and the hectare steps

Site area means the area of the application site, which is the land inside the red line on the location plan. That makes the red line a financial decision as well as a planning one on any area-charged category.

Two habits inflate the figure without helping the application. The first is drawing the red line around the whole ownership when only part is being developed, which is rarely necessary and sometimes actively harmful, because it puts land into the description of development that nobody intends to touch. The second is including an access route in red when it should be blue. Land in the applicant's ownership that is not part of the development belongs in blue, and blue land does not count towards site area for fee purposes.

Area-charged categories run in 0.1 hectare units, again with "or part of" wording, so a 2.13 hectare site is charged on 22 units. Above a stated area the scale changes to a base amount plus an additional amount for each further 0.1 hectare, and a maximum applies.

Schemes that fall into more than one category

A mixed development, say 40 flats with a ground-floor commercial unit and a substation, touches three categories at once. The regulations deal with this, and different authorities have read the combination rules differently over the years, which is why the same scheme can attract two different quotes from two validation teams.

The practical answer is to calculate each element separately, set out the arithmetic in writing, and ask the authority to confirm the total before you submit. A fee query answered by email in advance costs nothing. An underpayment discovered three weeks later means the application was never validly made, so the determination period has not begun and any extension of time you agreed is meaningless.

The caps, and when they matter

Every large category has a maximum fee. Once a scheme passes the cap, further floor space or further hectares add nothing to the application fee, which changes the marginal economics of phasing. A single application for the whole site can attract a lower total fee than three applications for thirds of it, even before you count the duplicated consultant time and the three sets of validation risk.

Set against that, a single large application locks the whole scheme into one determination period and one appeal if it goes wrong. Fees are rarely the deciding factor. But they are worth modelling, alongside the cost of dealing with retrospective development if any part of the site has already been altered, and the position on a fee refund where the council fails to determine in time.

Where measurement disputes actually arise

Four arguments come up again and again. Whether a covered but unenclosed area, such as a canopy over a loading bay, is floor space. Whether an existing mezzanine that is being replaced counts as created. Whether a private drive within the site is part of the site area. And whether a building described as agricultural qualifies for the agricultural bands, which turns on the use rather than the appearance.

The last one is worth care. The agricultural categories apply to buildings for agriculture as the legislation understands it, so an equestrian building, a farm shop or a general purpose store let to a third party is charged under the ordinary buildings category. Describing a building as agricultural to reach a lower band, when the intended use is not agriculture, is a validation problem and a later enforcement problem.

Putting the figures in the covering letter

Write the fee calculation into the covering letter, not just into the Planning Portal form. Three lines is enough: the category relied on, the measured quantity with its unit, and the arithmetic. State the drawing number that the measurement came from. Where you have had the figure confirmed by the authority, say who confirmed it and when.

That short paragraph does two jobs. It stops a validation officer recalculating from scratch and reaching a different answer, and it gives you a documented position if the figure is challenged after registration. A Planning Statement is the right place to carry the same figures where the scheme is large enough to need one.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Fee amounts are indexed and change, so check the current schedule with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on any figure. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.

For what the drafting side costs, see PlanScope pricing: one free report, £50 per report, or Professional for unlimited reports.