Planning fee indexation and budgeting across a year

National planning application fees in England are set by regulations, not by individual councils, and they now move on a fixed annual cycle. Fees are indexed each year with effect from 1 April, so an application received on 31 March and an identical one received on 2 April can cost different amounts. For a practice submitting a steady flow of work, that single date does more to the fee line than anything else in the year.

The amounts themselves change, which is why this article names none of them. Take the current figures from the fee schedule in the regulations or from the Planning Portal fee calculator on the day you submit, and put the printed calculation in the project file.

How national fees are set

The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012, as amended, contain the schedule of fees for every application type. Councils have no discretion over them. What a council does control is the charge for pre-application advice, which is a local service priced locally and sits outside the national schedule entirely.

Fees were increased across the board in December 2023, and the same package introduced annual indexation from April 2025. Indexation is applied by reference to a published inflation measure rather than being reset by ministers each year, which makes the direction predictable even when the figure is not.

Several categories carry no fee at all. Listed building consent, conservation area consent, applications for works to trees protected by a Tree Preservation Order, and section 211 notices in a conservation area are all free to lodge. Applications for works to adapt a dwelling for a disabled occupant are exempt in defined circumstances. Where an application attracts no fee, it still has to be valid, and the local validation list applies as normal.

What the annual change actually does to a programme

Three effects, in descending order of how much they cost a practice.

The first is on batched submissions. A practice holding four householder applications and a minor full application in late March can submit them all before the change date or let them slip. The sum involved is rarely dramatic on one application and adds up quickly across a book of work.

The second is on multi-application schemes. A single site can generate a full application, a listed building consent, several discharge of conditions requests, a non-material amendment and later a section 73 variation. Only some of those carry a fee, but the ones that do are each charged separately.

The third is on quotes already given to clients. A fee estimate issued in January for a scheme submitting in May will be wrong if it was built on the current schedule. Say in the engagement letter that the application fee is payable at the rate in force on the date of submission, and that it is indexed annually.

The fee is fixed by the date of a valid application

This is the rule that matters most and the one most often misunderstood.

The fee payable is the fee in force when the application is received by the authority, which in practice means when a valid application, with the correct fee, is with the council. An application submitted with the wrong fee is not valid, and the authority will ask for the balance. If that correspondence runs past a change date, expect a conversation about which rate applies. Practice varies, so confirm the position with the validation team rather than assuming.

Two practical habits follow.

Submit with the fee paid rather than with a promise to pay. Electronic submissions through the national portal handle this cleanly and produce a dated receipt, which is the evidence you want if the point is ever raised.

Check the calculation yourself against the schedule before you submit, particularly on mixed schemes where floorspace bands, dwelling counts and site area each drive a different part of the calculation. Fee disputes at validation are a slow way to lose a fortnight.

Which applications carry separate fees on one site

It helps to see the whole set laid out, because the ones people forget are the ones that arrive late in the programme.

Discharge of conditions is the line that surprises people. The fee is charged per request rather than per condition, so batching several conditions into one request costs less than submitting them one at a time. That has to be balanced against the risk of one weak submission holding up the rest, which is a judgement about the evidence rather than the fee.

Where an increase changes the strategy

Fee increases rarely change whether an application is made, but they do change how it is packaged.

On a site with a live permission and a modest design change, the choice between a section 73 variation, a section 96A non-material amendment and a fresh application is partly a fee question and mostly a risk question. A section 73 reopens conditions. A fresh application reopens policy, the biodiversity gain condition and levy rates. The fixed fee for a non-material amendment is the least of the three considerations.

On a phased scheme, the count of discharge requests over the life of the build is worth planning at the point conditions are agreed, not at the point they are discharged. Fewer, better evidenced conditions cost less to discharge in fees and far less in programme time.

For a householder client, the application fee is a small part of a budget dominated by drawings, surveys and construction. The full cost picture for a householder extension puts it in proportion, and it is worth doing that early so the client is not surprised by the survey line rather than the fee line.

Recording the fee and checking the current schedule

Keep three things in the project file for every application: the fee calculation printed from the source you used, the dated payment receipt, and the validation email confirming the application was made valid and on what date.

That trio answers almost every later question. It settles which rate applied, it evidences the date of a valid application for determination period purposes, and it supports a fee refund request where the authority fails to determine within the statutory period and a refund is available under the regulations.

For larger schemes, budget the application fee alongside the levy, because the two together are the cash items with fixed dates rather than negotiable ones. Working through the levy calculation from the charging schedule at the same time gives the client one coherent number instead of two surprises.

Fees are indexed annually and the schedule is amended from time to time, so check the current figures before every submission rather than relying on a spreadsheet built last year. The supporting documents a scheme needs are a larger cost than the fee in most cases, and they are the part you can plan.

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.