Planning performance agreements: what you are paying for
Performance agreements sit outside the statutory fee regime. Here is how councils price officer time, what the agreed extension of time really costs you, and which clauses to press before signing.
A planning performance agreement buys you a timetable, named officer input and structured engagement with statutory consultees. It does not buy a decision. Planning performance agreement cost is set by each authority under its power to charge for discretionary services, so the figures vary widely, and what you are actually paying for is programme certainty on a scheme where a refusal or a nine month drift would cost far more than the fee.
Anything that reads like a commitment to grant permission would be an unlawful fettering of the authority's discretion, so no agreement can contain one.
What a performance agreement is and what it is not
The agreement is a project management document signed by the applicant and the local planning authority, usually before submission and sometimes covering the pre-application stage as well. It records the scope of the scheme, the documents to be submitted, the meetings and their attendees, the target dates for each stage, and the resources each side commits.
It also normally contains an agreed extension of time under the Development Management Procedure Order, which replaces the statutory eight, thirteen or sixteen week period with the date in the timetable. Read that clause twice. It removes your right to appeal for non-determination until the agreed date passes, and it takes the application outside the authority's performance statistics, which is part of why authorities like them.
What the agreement cannot do: bind the committee, bind a statutory consultee, waive validation requirements, or shorten a statutory publicity period.
Typical cost structures and how they are calculated
Three models dominate, and most authorities publish their charges alongside pre-application fees.
The first is an hourly rate for officer time drawn down against an agreed budget, reconciled at the end. The second is a tiered fixed fee banded by scheme size, often using the same thresholds as the fee regulations, with major and large major bands. The third is a staged fee tied to milestones, typically a third on signature, a third on validation and the balance on committee or delegated decision.
Charges are made under section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003, which lets an authority charge for discretionary services up to the cost of providing them. That is the ceiling worth remembering when a quoted figure looks out of proportion to the officer days on offer. Ask for the assumed day rates and the number of days.
The statutory application fee is payable separately and in full. A performance agreement never replaces it.
Officer time, specialist input and consultant buy-in
Read the schedule of resources, because that is the real product. A useful agreement names the case officer, the team leader who will attend the key meetings, and the in-house specialists whose input the scheme actually needs: urban design, conservation, ecology, trees, environmental health, housing and the highway authority contact.
Where the authority has no in-house specialist, the agreement may include the cost of commissioning external advice, for example a viability review or a design review panel. Those are the line items that move the total, and they are worth having, because an authority that has paid for its own viability review engages with the numbers rather than dismissing them.
Watch for consultees who sit outside the agreement altogether. The Environment Agency, Historic England, National Highways and the lead local flood authority run their own service level agreements and their own charging. A timetable that assumes a four week response from a consultee who is not a party to it is a timetable with a hole in it.
The timetable and what happens when it slips
Every agreement slips. The ones that work say what happens next.
Look for a review mechanism with named triggers: a missed milestone, a material change to the scheme, a late consultee response, or an officer leaving. Look for a written variation procedure rather than an informal understanding. And look for what the authority owes you if the delay is theirs, which is usually nothing more than a revised programme, though some authorities will discount later stages.
Slippage caused by your own team is the more common problem. Incomplete information at submission, a late transport model, an ecology survey that missed the season. Our note on budgeting the ecology evidence base around the survey season sets out how far ahead that work has to start.
Whether a determination guarantee exists
No. Authorities will commit to determine by a date, to report to a named committee cycle, and to give early warning of a recommendation of refusal. None of that is a guarantee of outcome, and an agreement that appeared to promise one would be vulnerable to challenge.
The planning guarantee sits alongside this. Where an application is not determined within 26 weeks the fee can be refunded, but an agreed extension of time changes the date from which that is measured. Signing a long timetable therefore waives the practical benefit of the guarantee, which is a trade most major applicants accept and few read carefully.
Where the spend pays for itself
On a major scheme the arithmetic is usually straightforward. Finance costs on a stalled site, prelims on a delayed contract and the professional fees of a second submission all run to figures that dwarf the agreement fee.
The agreements that earn their money share a pattern. The scheme is complex in substance, with heritage, highways or viability in play. The applicant has a real programme constraint such as a funding deadline or a lease expiry. And there is a policy judgment the officer needs time to work through rather than a straightforward application of an adopted policy.
Where the scheme is a straightforward minor application in a policy compliant location, the fee mostly buys attention you might get anyway. Pre-application advice at a fraction of the cost often does the same job.
Negotiating deliverables before signing
Treat the draft as a contract, because that is what it is. Points worth pressing before signature:
- Convert vague commitments into dated deliverables, so "regular meetings" becomes a schedule with dates and attendees.
- Name the specialists and the hours allocated to each, not just the disciplines.
- Agree what happens to unused fee if the scheme is withdrawn, and whether any part is refundable.
- Fix the extension of time to a realistic date with a variation procedure, rather than an open ended one.
- Ask for a written position on the principle of development at an early milestone, so a fundamental objection surfaces in month two rather than month eight.
- Confirm who pays for any external review the authority commissions, and whether you see the brief.
Point five is the one that repays the effort. An early written view costs the authority little and lets you stop spending on a scheme that will not work.
Assemble the supporting documents that the agreed timetable depends on with PlanScope, and see all 66 report types by category or check pricing before you commit to a submission date.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Is a planning performance agreement compulsory for major schemes?
No. It is voluntary on both sides, and an authority cannot require one as a condition of validating an application. Some authorities strongly encourage them for large or complex proposals because they fund officer resource, but a refusal to enter one is not a ground for delaying validation or determination.
Does signing one stop me appealing for non-determination?
In practice, yes, until the agreed date passes. Most agreements include an extension of time under the Development Management Procedure Order, which replaces the statutory eight, thirteen or sixteen week period. Your right to appeal for non-determination then runs from the new date rather than the statutory one.
How much does a planning performance agreement cost?
It varies by authority and by scheme. Charges are made under section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003, which caps them at the cost of providing the service, and are usually published as hourly officer rates, tiered fixed fees or staged milestone payments. Ask for the assumed day rates and the number of officer days.
Do I still pay the statutory application fee?
Yes, in full and separately. The agreement covers discretionary services such as project management, additional meetings and specialist input. It has no effect on the fee payable under the fee regulations, and no effect on fees charged by statutory consultees operating their own service agreements.
Can the agreement commit the council to approve my scheme?
No. Any clause that committed the authority to a particular decision would unlawfully fetter its discretion and would be open to challenge. Authorities can commit to timescales, to attendance, to early warning of a negative recommendation and to reporting at a named committee, but never to the outcome.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.