Planning fees for a householder extension: what you pay

A householder planning application for an extension carries a single flat fee, set nationally in the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012. It does not vary with the size of your extension, the value of your house or which council you are applying to. It was uplifted in December 2023 and is now indexed annually on 1 April, so check the current figure on the Planning Portal fee calculator or your council's fee page before you budget, rather than trusting a number in an older article.

What the fee buys is narrower than most people expect, and several things you might assume are extra are actually free.

What the householder fee covers

The householder band applies to alterations or extensions to a single existing dwellinghouse, and to works within its curtilage. That covers the obvious things: a rear or side extension, a loft conversion needing permission, a porch, a conservatory, a garden room, a dropped kerb where permission is required, and walls, fences or hardstanding beyond permitted development limits.

It covers the whole proposal as one application. If your scheme includes a rear extension, a loft dormer and a new front boundary wall, that is one householder application and one fee, provided it all relates to the one dwelling within its curtilage.

The band stops at the front door of anything that is not householder development. Creating a separate dwelling, converting a garage into a flat, or building a new house in the garden moves you into the full application bands, which are charged per dwelling. Splitting a scheme into two applications to sit inside the householder band does not work and tends to produce a validation query instead. Where one proposal straddles two categories, the rules on fees for applications covering more than one category set out how the charge is calculated.

How the fee is set and indexed

Fees are national. A council cannot set its own application fee, discount it, or add to it, which is why the figure is identical in Cornwall and in Camden.

The 2012 Regulations were amended in December 2023 to raise the householder fee, and a mechanism was added so fees rise each 1 April in line with inflation. Two practical consequences follow. First, an estimate given to you by a builder or designer last year may be out of date. Second, if your application is submitted a few days either side of 1 April, the fee is the one in force on the day the application is made.

When you do not pay a fee

Several categories attract no fee at all, and householders routinely pay when they did not have to.

• Listed building consent carries no application fee. Planning permission for the same works usually does, so a listed house often needs two applications and one payment.
• Consent for works to a tree protected by a Tree Preservation Order, and notification of works to a tree in a conservation area, carry no fee.
• Works needed only to provide access or facilities for a disabled person at their home are exempt.
• Where permission is needed only because permitted development rights have been removed, by an Article 4 direction or by a condition on an earlier permission, no fee is payable.
• One repeat application is free within twelve months of a refusal or withdrawal of a similar application on the same site, subject to conditions in the regulations. Householders get one free go at this.

That last one is worth planning around. If your application is heading for refusal, withdrawing it and resubmitting an amended scheme within the year costs you time rather than another fee. Ask the case officer directly whether a withdrawal would help before the decision is issued.

Paying, and what the Planning Portal adds

Most applications go in through the Planning Portal, which passes the application to your council and takes the fee. The Portal applies its own service charge on some application types, shown at the payment stage, so the total you pay is not always the bare application fee. Applying directly to the council on its own forms is still possible in most areas and avoids that charge.

Keep the payment receipt and the reference number. If the application is later found invalid and cannot be corrected, the fee is refundable, and the receipt is what the council will ask for.

Refunds and the planning guarantee

A householder application should be determined within eight weeks of validation. The planning guarantee sits behind that: where an application is not determined within 26 weeks and no extension of time has been agreed, the fee is refundable under the regulations. It is a backstop rather than a normal outcome, and it does not compensate you for the delay.

Two things undercut it in practice. Councils often ask for an extension of time in writing, and agreeing one resets the position, so read the email before replying "yes" to be helpful. And a refund does not decide your application, so for a stalled scheme an appeal against non-determination may matter more than the money. There is a related point about timing when an old permission is running out, covered in the fees and charges that apply when a permission is nearly expired.

What the fee does not buy

The fee covers the determination of the application. It does not buy advice, a site visit before you apply, a drawing check, or any commitment about the outcome.

Pre-application advice is charged separately, under fee bands each council sets for itself. For a householder extension in a sensitive location, a short written response on the acceptability of a rear extension depth is usually money well spent, and what pre-application advice charges actually buy is worth reading before booking one.

The fee also does not cover your supporting documents. A householder application needs drawings at a recognised scale, a location plan with a red line, and for anything in a conservation area or affecting a listed building, a written justification of the design and its effect on the heritage asset. Nor does it cover the later cost of discharging conditions, which is charged separately for each request for approval of details.

Two other costs catch people out. Changing a permitted scheme later means either a non-material amendment application or a section 73 application to vary a condition, each with its own fee. And an extension adding more than 100 square metres of floorspace can be liable for the Community Infrastructure Levy where a council charges it, although a residential extension exemption exists and must be claimed and granted before work starts. Missing that claim is an expensive administrative error.

An illustrative budget for a straightforward rear extension on a 1930s semi therefore has four lines, not one: the application fee, the drawings, any pre-application charge, and the condition discharge fees after approval. The application fee is usually the smallest of them.

If you want the supporting documents drafted rather than written from scratch, PlanScope pricing sets out the free report and the per-report option. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.

Not sure which documents your council will expect with the application? Start from your postcode and answer the guided questions.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Fees change, so confirm the current figure with your local planning authority or the Planning Portal before you apply.