Planning fees for outline applications and reserved matters

An outline application fee in England is calculated on site area, not on the number of units, which is why two schemes proposing the same 80 dwellings can pay very different amounts. The fee regulations set a rate per 0.1 hectare up to a threshold, a lower rate per 0.1 hectare above it, and a maximum that caps the total. Reserved matters are then charged separately, and the way they are charged is where developers lose control of the budget.

Every figure in the fee schedule is indexed annually, so treat any number you have written down as provisional and check the current schedule before you commit it to a cash flow.

How the outline fee is worked out

The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012, as amended, set the structure.

Site area means the area of the application site shown by the red line, not the developable area and not the net residential area. That distinction is worth a moment before the red line is drawn. Land included for access, landscape buffers, drainage or ecological mitigation counts towards the fee even where nothing is built on it, and a red line drawn generously around an entire ownership can cost real money at outline stage.

Part hectares are rounded up to the next 0.1 hectare, so a site of 2.31 hectares is charged as 2.4.

The cap and where it bites

Large sites hit the maximum, and above that point extra area is free. That produces an odd incentive: on a 40 hectare strategic site the fee is the same as on a 60 hectare one, so there is no fee reason to trim the red line.

Below the cap, area is money. On a 3 or 4 hectare site the difference between a tight and a loose red line is measurable, and it repeats if the outline is later varied or resubmitted.

The cap applies to the application, not to the project. An outline permission followed by three reserved matters applications and two condition discharges generates several separate fees, none of which is capped by what came before.

Reserved matters and the aggregate rule

Reserved matters fees are calculated as though the submission were a full application for the development in question, subject to a minimum amount.

The rule that catches people is the aggregate one. Where reserved matters are submitted in more than one application, the total paid across those applications is measured against what a single application covering everything would have cost. Until that total is reached, each submission attracts a fee calculated in the normal way. Once the aggregate has been reached, further reserved matters applications attract only a flat further-application fee.

Read that carefully, because it means the first reserved matters submission on a large scheme is expensive. It is charged as if it were a full application for the whole development, not for the phase in front of you, unless the regulations provide otherwise for the way you have framed it. Get the fee confirmed in writing by the authority before submission rather than discovering the number when the application is invalidated for underpayment.

Phasing costs more than a single submission

Phasing is normal and often unavoidable. It also multiplies the transaction costs.

Each reserved matters application is a separate submission with its own drawings, its own supporting documents, its own consultation period and its own eight or thirteen week determination period. The fee is one line in that cost. The larger numbers are the professional time spent producing each pack and the programme risk of a phase slipping past a condition trigger.

1. Work out the phasing before the outline is submitted, and reflect it in the phasing plan and the conditions.
2. Ask the authority to word the conditions so that discharge can be phase by phase, not scheme-wide.
3. Where several matters can be submitted together, submit them together.
4. Keep a running record of fees paid against the aggregate, because the authority will not do it for you.

The point of the third one is not the fee saving alone. It is that a combined submission is assessed as a coherent design, and split submissions invite the officer to reserve judgement on each part until the next arrives.

Indexation and which schedule applies

Planning fees in England were increased in December 2023, and the regulations introduced annual indexation from April 2025. That means the figures change each year on a set date, and the applicable fee is the one in force when the application is received rather than when the cheque was budgeted.

For a scheme running over three or four years from outline to final reserved matters, assume the later submissions cost more than the earlier ones. Build an inflation allowance into the development appraisal rather than a fixed figure.

Pre-application advice is charged separately and is not set by the national regulations at all. Councils publish their own scales, they usually attract VAT, and the bands vary widely between authorities. A planning performance agreement is different again: a negotiated contract with a defined resource commitment and timetable, priced by the authority, which on a strategic site is often the largest single planning fee in the budget.

Refunds and the determination guarantee

The fee regulations have included a mechanism refunding the fee where an authority fails to determine an application within 26 weeks and no extension of time has been agreed. This has been amended more than once, so check the current position before relying on it.

Two practical points survive whatever the detail says. Agreeing an extension of time removes the entitlement, and authorities ask for extensions routinely on major applications. And on a scheme with a funding deadline, a refund is worth far less than a decision, so trading the extension for a committed date is usually the better bargain.

Budgeting the sequence

Set the budget out as a sequence rather than a single number: pre-application charge, outline fee, reserved matters fees across the phases, condition discharge fees for each tranche of conditions, any section 73 variation, section 96A non-material amendments, and the planning performance agreement if there is one.

Then add the evidence base, which on a major application dwarfs the statutory fees. That is the number worth attention. See what a report costs on PlanScope if you are pricing the drafting side, or browse the report types to work out which ones the site's constraints will trigger. A well-scoped Planning Statement at outline stage also reduces the volume of work needed at reserved matters, because the policy case has already been made and does not need rebuilding for each phase.

Fees are indexed annually, so confirm the current amounts on the national fee guidance or the Planning Portal fee calculator before submitting anything. 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.