Outline and reserved matters fees on a phased scheme

An outline application fee is calculated on site area, in 0.1 hectare steps, with a cap. A reserved matters application is then charged as though it were an application for full permission for the development, which on a housing scheme means the per dwelling scale all over again. Once the total you have paid across the outline and any earlier reserved matters submissions reaches what a full application would have cost, further submissions drop to a flat fee. That single rule decides whether a phased consent is affordable.

How the outline fee is worked out

Outline permission under section 92 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 fixes the principle of development and leaves one or more of access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale for later approval. Those five are the reserved matters, defined in article 2 of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015.

Because an outline application does not state how many dwellings or how much floor space will be built, the fee cannot be charged on either. The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012 charge it on the area of the site instead, in 0.1 hectare units or part units, with the scale changing above a stated area and a maximum above that. So the red line drives the fee, and a red line drawn generously around land you do not intend to develop costs real money at this stage.

Fees are indexed annually with revised figures taking effect on 1 April, so take the current amounts from the government fees guidance rather than from a spreadsheet you built last year.

What a reserved matters application costs

Here is the part that catches people who have only done full applications. An application for approval of reserved matters is charged by reference to what the development would have cost as a full application. On 80 dwellings, the reserved matters fee is calculated on the per dwelling scale for 80 dwellings, not on a flat administrative charge.

Against that sits the cumulative rule. Where the total already paid, counting the outline fee and any previous reserved matters applications on the same permission, equals or exceeds the amount that a full application for the whole development would have attracted, the fee for further reserved matters applications becomes a flat sum.

Two consequences follow. The first reserved matters submission is the expensive one. And on a large scheme where the outline fee hit the site area cap, the first reserved matters application can cost more than the outline did.

Several reserved matters submissions on one outline

An outline permission can carry more than one reserved matters application, and there are good reasons to split them. Access approved first lets the highway agreement proceed. Layout and scale approved separately from appearance and landscaping lets a housebuilder fix plot positions before choosing brick.

The cumulative rule makes the arithmetic manageable, because only the payments up to the full application equivalent are charged on the scale. But each submission is a separate application with its own validation list, its own 13 week or 8 week period and its own consultation, so the saving in fees is often outweighed by consultant time and programme.

Work out the ceiling before you decide. Calculate what a full application for the whole scheme would have cost, subtract the outline fee you have paid, and that difference is the most you can be charged on the scale across all reserved matters submissions together. Everything after it is the flat rate.

Phasing, and what the outline condition allows

Phased reserved matters only work if the outline permission allows them. Read the conditions. A condition requiring "approval of the reserved matters before development begins" is different from one requiring approval "in respect of each phase before development begins on that phase", and the second is what you need.

Where the outline was granted without phasing wording, the route to adding it is an application under section 73 to vary the condition, which carries its own fee and its own risk, because the authority reconsiders the condition and could impose a different one.

Watch the time limits too. Unless the permission says otherwise, an application for approval of reserved matters must be made within three years of the outline permission, and development must begin within two years of the final approval of the last reserved matter. On a phased scheme those two deadlines interact in ways that are easy to get wrong, and a missed reserved matters deadline cannot be cured by a fee.

Condition discharge, variations and the fees around them

Alongside reserved matters sit three other application types, each with a flat fee that is indexed annually:

• A request to discharge or confirm compliance with conditions, charged per request rather than per condition, with a lower rate for householder development
• An application under section 73 to vary or remove a condition, which produces a new permission
• An application under section 96A for a non-material amendment, which amends the existing permission

Bundle conditions into as few discharge requests as the authority will accept, because the fee is per request. Requests for an environmental impact assessment screening opinion or scoping opinion carry no fee at all, which is worth knowing on a marginal scheme. Planning performance agreement charges are negotiated separately and are not fees under the regulations.

One trap. The exemption that lets you make one further application free of charge within twelve months does not apply between an outline permission and its reserved matters, because reserved matters are not a repeat application for the same development.

Budgeting the sequence from outline to first spade

Model the whole chain rather than the next step. On a typical 80 unit greenfield scheme the fee sequence usually runs:

1. Outline application, charged on site area with a cap
2. First reserved matters application, charged on the per dwelling scale up to the cumulative ceiling
3. Second and any further reserved matters applications, at the flat rate once the ceiling is reached
4. Several condition discharge requests, each at the flat per request rate
5. One or two section 73 applications as the design settles
6. A section 96A application near the end for plot level amendments

Then add the things that are not fees but land in the same cash flow: the section 106 legal costs, any monitoring sum, the community infrastructure levy due when work starts, and the utility connection costs in a development budget, which on a greenfield site can dwarf every planning fee combined.

Keep the fee evidence with the application. Where the authority fails to determine in time you may be able to recover the fee, and the mechanics of a planning fee refund on non-determination depend on having the payment record to hand. The same is true of costs awards at appeal.

When a full application is the better value route

Outline plus reserved matters almost always costs more in total fees and consultant time than a single full application, and it takes longer. What it buys is the ability to establish the principle of development, and therefore land value, before spending on detailed design.

That trade is worth it when you are acquiring the land subject to planning, when the scheme's acceptability in principle is the real question, or when a house builder will buy the consented site and design it themselves. It is not worth it when you own the land, the principle is not in doubt because the site is allocated, and you intend to build it yourself. In that case go straight to full permission and spend the difference on the Planning Statement and the technical evidence.

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

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