How planning fees are indexed each April

Planning application fees in England come from the schedule to the 2012 Fees Regulations, and since those regulations were amended they carry an annual adjustment linked to the consumer prices index, subject to a cap, taking effect on 1 April. Planning fee indexation replaced the old pattern, in which fees stayed still for years and then moved sharply when a new statutory instrument was laid.

For a practice, the change is administrative rather than dramatic. It still catches people out, usually in a fee proposal written in February for an application submitted in May.

Where the fee schedule lives

The regulations are the authority. Everything else is a convenience.

The Planning Portal's fee calculator is the tool most practices use, and it is reliable, but it is a presentation of the regulations rather than the source. The national guidance on fees explains the categories, the exemptions and the concessions, and it is the right place to start when a case does not fit neatly into a category.

Local authorities publish their own fee pages, and these are the ones most often out of date immediately after an adjustment. If an authority's page and the regulations disagree, the regulations win, and pointing that out politely usually resolves it.

Keep a dated screenshot of the calculator output with each submission. It costs seconds and it settles any later dispute about what the fee was when the application went in.

Charges that sit outside the regulations altogether follow their own rules. Pre-application advice fees are set by each authority under its own charging powers. Monitoring fees under a planning obligation are negotiated. Neither moves with the April adjustment.

How the annual adjustment works

The mechanism is an index-linked uplift applied to the charges the regulations identify, calculated over a defined period and capped so that an unusual inflation year does not produce an unusual fee increase.

Two practical points follow from the design. The adjustment is automatic, so there is no consultation and no statutory instrument to watch for each year. And because it is capped, the relationship between the fee and general inflation drifts over time rather than tracking it exactly.

Take the formula and the cap from the current version of the regulations. Both have been the subject of amendment, and a figure remembered from a briefing note two years ago is the sort of thing that produces an underpaid fee and an invalid application.

Which charges move and which do not

Do not apply a single percentage across a fee schedule. The regulations distinguish between categories, and the treatment is not uniform.

• Application fees in the main schedule, which are the ones the adjustment is aimed at.
• Fees for applications for prior approval, which have their own entries.
• Charges for requests and site visits, which sit in the same regulations but are listed separately.
• Concessions and exemptions, including the position where an application follows an earlier one on the same site.
• Applications for development that would be permitted development but for an Article 4 direction or a condition, where an exemption has historically applied.

That last category is worth checking on every relevant application, because the exemption is easy to miss and authorities do not always volunteer it. Conditions attach to it, including time limits in some cases, so read the current regulations rather than relying on custom.

Timing an application around the date

The fee payable is the one in force when the application is made. On a large scheme the difference between submitting on 30 March and 2 April is a real number, and on a portfolio of applications it is a larger one.

Two cautions before building a programme around it. An application submitted before the date but returned as invalid, and resubmitted afterwards, is charged at the new rate, so rushing a submission that is not ready achieves nothing. And validation teams are busiest in the last week of March for exactly this reason.

The sensible approach is to bring forward submissions that are actually ready, and to price the rest at the new rate.

There is a second timing question that matters more on a large scheme. Where an outline permission is followed by reserved matters, the reserved matters fee is charged at the rate in force when that application is made, which may be years later. Budgets built at outline stage should say so rather than carrying a figure that will have moved.

Fee quotations in client proposals

A fee proposal written before an adjustment and accepted afterwards creates an awkward conversation unless the wording anticipates it.

Three habits remove the problem. Date every quotation. State that the planning application fee is payable at the rate in force when the application is submitted. And treat the fee as a separate line, passed through at cost, rather than rolling it into a professional fee where a change looks like a price rise.

Where an application is likely to be resubmitted or varied, say what happens to the fee in each case. Section 73 applications, non-material amendments and discharge of condition applications all carry their own charges, and a client who has budgeted for one fee is rarely pleased to meet four.

On a householder job the fee is a small part of the cost and the conversation is easy. On a major application with several condition discharges and a variation, the charges add up to a number worth setting out in the appointment.

Reconciling a change during a live application

Occasionally a fee question arises after submission: the description changes, additional floorspace appears, or the authority takes a different view of the category.

Deal with it in writing and early. An underpaid fee makes an application invalid, and an application that is invalid has not been made, which affects the determination period and any subsequent appeal for non-determination. Where the position is properly arguable, set out your reading of the schedule and ask the authority to confirm theirs before paying a disputed amount.

Where the authority fails to determine within the relevant period, the regulations also provide for a refund in defined circumstances; the detail is set out in fee refunds for non-determination. Costs at appeal are a separate matter again, covered in appeal costs awards.

Keeping a practice fee table current

If your office keeps its own table, put a review in the diary for the first working day of April and treat every other copy as out of date.

1. Update the table from the regulations, not from a secondary summary.
2. Check the categories you use most, including prior approval and condition discharge charges.
3. Update the standard wording in fee proposals at the same time.
4. Check any authority-specific charges, such as pre-application bands, separately.
5. Circulate the change to whoever prepares submissions, as well as to whoever prepares invoices.

Report costs are the other half of the budget, and they are easier to fix in advance. PlanScope publishes its prices plainly: one free report, £50 per report, or Professional at £150 per month or £600 per year for unlimited reports. You can see the detail on PlanScope pricing, and browse the 66 report types to work out what a scheme needs.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your site needs.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.