What a non-material amendment costs and covers

A non-material amendment is the lowest cost and fastest way to change an approved scheme, and the section 96A fee reflects that. There are two bands. A lower one for applications relating to a dwellinghouse and a higher one for everything else, both set by the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) Regulations 2012 as amended. The figures were uplifted in December 2023 and are now indexed annually, so check the current schedule rather than a number you remember from a previous job.

What the fee buys is narrow. A decision within 28 days on a change that the council accepts is not material, with no consultation, no appeal and no new permission.

The statutory basis and what non-material means

Section 96A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets a local planning authority make a change to an existing planning permission if it is satisfied the change is not material. The Act deliberately does not define materiality, and the guidance leaves it to the authority's judgement on the facts of the case.

In practice officers test three things. Whether the change alters the character or appearance of the development as approved, whether it affects anyone who was not affected before, and whether it would have altered the original recommendation had it been shown on the submitted drawings.

The power also allows the authority to impose new conditions, and to remove or alter existing ones, as part of the amendment. That is useful when a small design change makes an existing condition unworkable, though it is not a route to strip out a condition you dislike.

Changes that usually succeed include a window swapped for an identical-sized unit in a different material, a repositioned soil vent pipe, a small change to internal layout that does not alter the elevations, a correction to a drawing number or a site boundary drawn slightly wrong, and a minor shift in the position of a rear extension within its own plot.

Changes that usually fail include anything that increases height, anything visible on a principal elevation in a sensitive setting, additional units, and any change that alters the description of development.

The fee bands and what to check before you pay

The fee structure is straightforward. One amount for an amendment to a permission for a dwellinghouse or for development in the curtilage of a dwellinghouse, and a higher amount for other development. There is no scaling by the size of the scheme, so a single amendment to a 300-home permission costs the same as one to a small commercial unit.

Two things are worth checking before submitting. Whether the authority charges separately for discharging any new condition it imposes through the amendment, and whether its own validation list asks for anything beyond the form, the fee and the amended drawings. Some authorities ask for a short covering note setting out why the change is not material, and writing one is sensible even where it is not required.

Budget the professional time honestly as well. The drafting is small, but reissuing a drawing set with correct revision numbers, and checking the change against every condition on the decision notice, takes longer than the form itself. For context on how the wider fee picture fits together, what a householder planning application really costs sets out the other charges in the same sequence.

The 28 day clock and what happens at the end of it

The authority must notify its decision within 28 days beginning with the day after the application is received, unless a longer period is agreed in writing. There is no statutory requirement to publicise the application or consult neighbours, although some authorities notify an original objector as a matter of policy.

Silence at day 28 is not a deemed approval. If nothing arrives, the application has simply not been determined, and there is no right of appeal against a refusal or a non-determination of a section 96A application. The remedy for a refusal is either to resubmit with a better explanation, to apply under section 73 to vary a condition, or to make a fresh planning application.

That lack of an appeal route is the reason to keep the ask modest. An officer who is unsure will refuse rather than risk an amendment being challenged, because they carry the risk personally.

Changes that need section 73 or a fresh application

Section 73 allows an application to develop land without complying with a condition, which in practice is how most variations to approved drawings are made once the change is more than trivial. It produces a new permission, sitting alongside the original, with its own conditions and its own three-year implementation period.

Two limits matter. Section 73 cannot be used to change the description of the development, following the courts' approach to that question, and it cannot be used to grant something the original permission did not. Where a change goes beyond both routes, a fresh application is the answer.

Section 73B, inserted by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, creates a further route for minor variations. Check whether it is in force and how your authority is applying it before building a programme around it.

Keeping the approved plans condition tidy

Almost every permission carries a condition requiring the development to be carried out in accordance with a list of numbered drawings. That condition is what makes amendments necessary, and it is also what makes them go wrong.

Work to three habits. Keep one master schedule of the approved drawing numbers and revisions, updated after every amendment. Make sure the drawing numbers on the amendment application match the numbers the decision notice will list, rather than the numbers your practice uses internally. And record each amendment against the original reference so that the compliance pack at the end of the build reads as a single chain.

Building control approval is not planning approval. A change agreed on site with the building control body has no effect on the planning condition, and discovering that at handover is a common and avoidable problem. The same discipline applies to levy paperwork, where avoidable surcharges arise from the same sort of administrative slip.

Budgeting amendments across a build

On a typical small housing scheme, expect a handful of amendments between permission and completion. Cladding substitutions after a supplier changes specification, rooflight positions adjusted to suit the structure, plot boundary tweaks after the setting out, and drawing corrections found during building control review.

Put a provisional sum in the fee budget for two or three non-material amendments and one section 73 application. That is closer to reality than assuming none, and it costs far less than the delay caused by discovering at practical completion that the house as built does not match the approved plans.

Where the change is uncertain, a short pre-application enquiry is often quicker than a refused amendment. Pre-application advice charges and what they buy covers how those fees are set.

PlanScope drafts supporting documents such as planning statements and design statements from your project details, with facts it cannot verify flagged rather than invented. Amendment forms and fees remain a matter for you and the authority. See PlanScope pricing if you are weighing up the cost of drafting the supporting documents yourself.

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.