Pre-application advice or a planning performance agreement
Both are discretionary, both are paid for, and neither commits the council to granting permission. This compares what each buys, when an agreement earns its cost, and how to record what was said.
Pre-application advice buys you an opinion. A planning performance agreement buys you a process. Both are paid for, both are discretionary, and neither commits the authority to granting permission, which is the point most often misunderstood by people signing the cheque.
For a scheme of ten houses, standard pre-application advice is almost always the right spend. For 400 homes with an environmental statement and three statutory consultees who disagree with each other, a performance agreement earns its cost within the first month.
What each one buys
Pre-application advice is a discretionary service charged under the Local Government Act 2003 power to charge for discretionary services. You submit a description of the proposal with drawings, an officer reviews it against the development plan, and you receive written advice, usually with a meeting for larger schemes. The fee bands are published by each authority and scale with the size of the proposal.
A planning performance agreement is a written framework for managing a project between the applicant and the authority. National guidance encourages their use on larger or more complex schemes. It sets out the scope of the work, who does what, a timetable with milestones, the resources the authority will commit, and how the parties will communicate.
The difference is commitment. Pre-application advice ends when the advice is issued. A performance agreement continues through submission, determination and often the discharge of conditions.
Fee structures and what is included
| Pre-application advice | Planning performance agreement | |
|---|---|---|
| Basis of charge | Published fee band by scheme size | Bespoke, based on officer time and resources committed |
| Typical scope | Written advice, sometimes one meeting | Project management from pre-application to determination |
| Duration | Weeks | Months, often more than a year |
| Authority commitment | Response within a stated period | Named officers, agreed milestones, agreed timetable |
| Covers statutory consultees | Not usually | Can be structured to coordinate them |
| Extension of determination period | No | Usually agreed within the framework |
Published pre-application charges vary a great deal between authorities, and they are indexed or revised periodically, so take the figure from the council's current published schedule rather than from a previous project.
Performance agreement costs are negotiated. The money typically funds officer time, and on large schemes it can fund a named case officer's dedicated capacity, specialist input from within the authority, or external consultant advice the authority commissions. It does not and cannot fund a favourable outcome.
Statutory consultees charge separately for their own pre-submission advice. The Environment Agency, Natural England and National Highways each run charged advisory services for development proposals, and those fees sit outside whatever you pay the council. Budget for them at the same time, because a scheme that needs all three will spend more on consultee advice than on the council's.
Timescales and who is committed
Under standard pre-application advice, you are buying a response within whatever period the authority publishes. Councils under pressure miss those periods and there is no remedy beyond complaining.
Under a performance agreement, the timetable is part of the agreement and both sides sign up to it. The applicant commits too, which people forget: agreeing to submit documents by particular dates, to respond to comments within a set time, and to attend meetings. A developer who misses their own milestones cannot complain when the authority misses the next one.
The agreement usually includes an agreed extension to the statutory determination period, which removes the pressure on both sides to determine a scheme before the evidence is complete. That is a genuine benefit and it comes with a cost: the appeal clock for non-determination effectively stops being a lever you can pull.
What weight the advice carries
This is where expectations need managing. Pre-application advice is officer advice, not a decision. It does not bind the authority, it does not bind the planning committee, and it does not bind a different officer who inherits the file.
It is a material consideration, and an inspector will give some weight to consistent advice that the authority later departs from without explanation. That weight is modest and it is not a substitute for a scheme that complies with policy.
Two further points on advice. It is given on the information supplied, so advice based on an indicative layout does not survive a change to the layout. And pre-application correspondence can be disclosable under environmental information rules, so write on the assumption it may become public.
A performance agreement carries no more weight on the merits. What it changes is the quality of the information the decision is made on, and the speed at which disagreements surface.
When a performance agreement earns its cost
Four situations make the case, in my experience of watching schemes run.
The first is where environmental impact assessment is involved and scoping needs to be agreed. Getting the scope of an Environmental Impact Assessment settled early, with the statutory consultees in the room, avoids the most expensive kind of rework.
The second is where several consultees have overlapping interests, typically highways, lead local flood authority, ecology and heritage. A framework that coordinates their input stops the sequential cycle of one objection resolved just as the next arrives.
The third is where the scheme depends on a section 106 package that will take months to negotiate. Starting the heads of terms during the application rather than after resolution to grant can save half a year.
The fourth is where the local plan position is unsettled and the authority's officers need time to form a view. That is the situation in which a performance agreement is most useful and least often used.
For a scheme that does not fall into one of those categories, pay for good pre-application advice and spend the difference on the evidence base.
There is a fifth situation nobody markets, which is a scheme that is politically difficult rather than technically difficult. An agreement will not fix that. It gives you a better documented refusal.
Recording what was agreed
Whichever route, the record is the asset.
Take your own note of every meeting and send it to the officer within a few days, asking them to correct anything they disagree with. Silence is not agreement, but an uncorrected note sent promptly is far better evidence than a recollection.
Keep a running schedule of the points raised, the response, and where in the submission each is answered. That schedule becomes the covering letter, and a covering letter that maps officer concerns to document sections is the single most useful thing you can put at the front of a submission.
Where the advice shaped the scheme, say so in the Planning Statement and quote the advice. Where you disagreed with the advice and proceeded anyway, say that too, with reasons. Officers respect the second more than they respect silence.
Scoping the specialist reports is part of the same exercise. Agreeing at pre-application whether a landscape or a townscape assessment is required, which our comparison of LVIA and townscape assessments sets out, saves commissioning the wrong one. On larger schemes the consultation approach agreed at this stage also shapes the Statement of Community Involvement.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the current charges and service standards with your local planning authority before relying on them.
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 pre-application advice binding on the council?
No. It is officer advice rather than a decision, and it binds neither the authority nor the planning committee nor a different officer who later inherits the file. It is a material consideration, and an inspector may give some weight to consistent advice departed from without explanation, but that weight is modest.
What is a planning performance agreement?
A written framework for managing a project between the applicant and the local planning authority, encouraged by national guidance for larger or more complex schemes. It sets out the scope of work, responsibilities, a timetable with milestones, the resources the authority commits, and how the parties communicate, usually running from pre-application through to determination.
Does a performance agreement guarantee a faster decision?
It commits both sides to a timetable, which usually produces a more predictable process rather than a shorter one. It normally includes an agreed extension to the statutory determination period, so the non-determination appeal route effectively stops being a lever. The benefit is in coordination and in fewer surprises.
How much does pre-application advice cost?
It varies widely between authorities, charged under the Local Government Act 2003 power to charge for discretionary services, with published fee bands scaling by scheme size. The schedules are revised periodically, so take the figure from the council's current published list rather than from a previous project.
Can pre-application correspondence be made public?
It can. Pre-application material may be disclosable under environmental information rules, and authorities differ in how they handle requests. Write on the assumption that anything you send could become public, and keep genuinely commercially sensitive material out of the correspondence rather than relying on an exemption.
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.