Planning fee indexation and how fees now change

Planning application fees in England are set in regulations, not by individual councils, and since 1 April 2025 they have been adjusted annually in line with inflation. That means the figure you find in a two-year-old guide, or in the back of a builder's folder, is wrong. Check the current figure before you write the cheque or set up the online payment, because an underpaid fee means the application is not valid and the clock does not start.

For a householder extension the fee is a single flat figure. For a new dwelling, a change of use or a commercial scheme it depends on floorspace, site area and application type, so the fee calculator is the practical route.

How fees are set in regulations

The fee regime sits in the Town and Country Planning fee regulations for England, as amended. The schedules set out the categories of development and the fee for each: householder development, the erection of dwellinghouses by number, other buildings by floorspace, outline applications by site area, change of use, advertisement consent, prior approvals, and the various certificates.

Councils cannot vary these figures. They can charge separately for discretionary services such as pre-application advice, and for things like planning performance agreements, and those charges are set locally and published, so there you do need the individual authority's schedule. The application fee itself is national.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland operate their own fee regimes under their own legislation, so a figure quoted for England does not apply there. This article describes the English position.

Listed building consent carries no fee, which surprises people. The planning application that usually accompanies it does.

The uplift and the move to annual indexation

Fees were increased substantially in December 2023, with a larger percentage increase applied to major applications than to everything else. The same amending regulations introduced annual indexation from 1 April 2025, so fees now move once a year rather than in occasional steps.

That changed the planning of budgets more than the level of the fee did. Before, a fee figure stayed valid for years at a time and an estimate prepared in January was still right in December. Now the figure has a shelf life that ends on 31 March.

Indexation is based on a published measure of consumer price inflation, applied to the figures in the schedules and subject to a cap, with the result rounded. The mechanics are in the regulations. The practical upshot is a modest annual increase rather than the occasional large jump the sector used to see, which is easier to budget for and easier to forget about.

How the indexed figure is calculated

The adjustment is applied to the existing fee figures by reference to the inflation measure over a stated period, with a maximum annual increase and rounding to a convenient figure. The resulting schedule applies to applications made on or after 1 April.

Two consequences follow for an applicant.

The first is that the fee is fixed by the date the application is made, so an application submitted on 31 March pays the old figure and one submitted on 1 April pays the new one. On a householder application that difference is small. On a major scheme with a large floorspace-based fee it is not, and submitting before the end of March is a legitimate saving where the application is ready anyway.

The second is that estimates need a date on them. A fee figure in a client cost plan should carry the date it was checked and a note that it is subject to annual indexation. That single line prevents an awkward conversation nine months later.

Which applications are affected

Indexation applies across the fee schedules, so householder applications, full applications, outline applications, reserved matters, change of use, prior approvals under the General Permitted Development Order, lawful development certificates, applications to vary or remove conditions under section 73, non-material amendments under section 96A, discharge of conditions, and advertisement consent all move together.

A few points catch people out. A prior approval application has its own fee, which is lower than a full application but is not nil. Discharge of conditions carries a fee per request, and a permission with several conditions to deal with before a start can generate more than one. Reserved matters applications are charged separately from the outline, so the total across an outline and reserved matters route differs from the fee for a single full application.

Appeals to the Planning Inspectorate carry no fee. The cost of an appeal is professional time, not a filing charge.

Free go and exemptions

A long-standing concession allowed one further application for substantially the same development on the same site, within twelve months of a refusal or withdrawal, without a further fee. The fee regulations have been amended several times and the scope of that concession has been narrowed, so check the regulations as currently in force and the fee calculator before assuming it applies to your resubmission.

Other reductions and exemptions that exist in some form include a reduced fee for alterations to a dwelling for the benefit of a disabled occupant, reduced fees where the same development is proposed by multiple applicants jointly, and the absence of a fee for listed building consent and for certain works to trees. Each has conditions attached.

Where a fee has been paid and the application turns out to be invalid or is withdrawn before determination, authorities will often refund or part-refund, but the position depends on the stage reached and on the authority's own practice. Ask before withdrawing rather than after.

Fees for certificates and prior approvals

Three categories worth knowing in advance.

A certificate of lawfulness of an existing use or development under section 191 is charged at the same rate as an application for the development in question would be, which can make it an expensive but worthwhile exercise where a use needs confirming before a sale. A certificate for a proposed use or development under section 192 is charged at half that rate.

Prior approval applications under the General Permitted Development Order have their own figures, which differ between classes. A larger householder extension notification, a Class MA commercial to residential conversion and a telecommunications prior approval are all charged differently.

Non-material amendments under section 96A are charged at a low flat rate for householder development and a higher flat rate for everything else. Section 73 applications to vary a condition are charged at a flat rate, which is why varying a condition is usually a better route than making a fresh application where the change is modest.

Where to find the current figure

Three sources, in order of usefulness.

The fee calculator on the Planning Portal, which walks through the development type and produces the figure. The government guidance page on fees for planning applications, which carries the current schedule. And the regulations themselves on the legislation website, which is where to go when the first two disagree or when you need the exact wording for an unusual application type.

The authority's own validation page helps too, because it will state the fee alongside the local information requirements, and a mismatch between the two is a useful warning that something has changed. Follow fee and procedural changes as they come through on the planning law updates timeline.

Pay attention to how the fee is paid. Most authorities now take payment through the national application service, and an application submitted without payment sits unvalidated until the money arrives.

Budgeting for a change of year

Where a project straddles 1 April, build the uplift into the cost plan rather than discovering it.

Two habits help. Check the fee figure at the point of submission rather than at the point of quoting, and tell the client that the figure is indexed annually. And where a scheme involves a sequence of applications, outline then reserved matters then condition discharge, assume each one is charged at the rate applying when it is made rather than at today's rate.

Then separate the fee from everything else in the budget. The application fee is one line. The agent, the drawings, specialist reports and building control charges are separate lines, and the fee is usually the smallest of them. Conditions carry their own later costs too, including levy notices and the paperwork that has to be in order before a start, as set out in commencement notices and the levy amendment regulations.

Browse the 66 report types by category to see which supporting documents your application needs alongside the fee, and enter your postcode on PlanScope to start a draft.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Fees are indexed annually and the regulations are amended regularly, so check the current schedule with the Planning Portal fee calculator, 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.