Planning fee changes: costs rise again in December

Planning fee changes will hit homeowners and developers for the second time this year. From 8 December, a full application to build one new home will cost £752 instead of £610, while the fee for extending or altering a house rises from £548 to £575. Some developers face much bigger increases than householders.

For schemes of ten to 49 new homes, the application fee rises from £659 to £818 per dwelling. The cost of discharging planning conditions also jumps, from £89 to £125 for householders and from £309 to £435 for other development. Many permitted development prior approval applications will become dearer too, and some previously free applications will attract a new £310 charge.

The Government says the higher fees will help councils recover about 90% of their application-processing costs. But these planning fee changes do not start until 8 December, and there is another 3.5% inflation-related rise scheduled for 1 April 2027. Anyone preparing an application now needs to know which fee applies, rather than simply assuming that all charges have already increased.

Planning fee changes: how much more will you pay?

These are some of the most commonly used application fees. The increase varies by application type, and certain larger housing and mixed-use schemes have more complicated charging rules.

What the planning fee changes mean for new homes

The largest recurring cost increases will fall on applicants delivering new housing. For a full planning application proposing fewer than ten new dwellings, the fee moves from £610 to £752 per dwelling. For ten to 49 dwellings it rises from £659 to £818 per dwelling. The amended regulations use a further tier for more than 49 homes, with £818 for each of the first 49 and £236 for each additional home, up to the specified maximum. Applicants should calculate the applicable band rather than assume one price applies across all housing sites.

Outline applications also change, with fees tied to site area and a larger distinction between smaller and larger schemes. For a site below half a hectare the fee is £719 per 0.1 hectare or part, compared with £610 currently. Between half a hectare and 2.5 hectares it will be £896 per 0.1 hectare or part, rather than £659. Above that threshold the new additional-area rate and maximum fee apply. The full schedule matters for mixed schemes and sites spanning different application categories.

A single existing dwellinghouse extension or alteration rises from £548 to £575, while works within a dwellinghouse curtilage in the relevant category move to £285. That smaller householder increase should not obscure the much greater effect of the planning fee changes on larger housing and business applications. The fee rules apply according to the statutory description of the development, not simply the everyday label used on a drawing or planning portal form.

Permission in principle and prior approval are changing

One of the most consequential alterations concerns permission in principle. Instead of the current site-area charge of £531 for each 0.1 hectare or part, the amended Schedule 1 specifies a flat fee of £825 for an application for permission in principle. That can substantially change the cost of a larger qualifying site, while raising the fee for a small plot. Permission in principle remains a distinct two-stage consent route, with technical details consent required before development can proceed.

There are important planning fee changes to the General Permitted Development Order prior approval procedures too. Several application types currently charged at £249 increase to £310, while another fee increases from £536 to £667. The Class MA change from commercial use to dwellings, where the relevant statutory charge currently stands at £260 per new home, becomes £323 per home. The amendments also introduce a £310 charge for other applications under the relevant GPDO Schedule that previously did not attract one. The correct charge depends on the actual class and regulation, so it is worth checking the wording rather than applying a headline percentage to every case.

Planning Geek’s permission in principle guide explains the two-stage process, while our planning fees and exemptions guide sets out the current charges and the scheduled December figures. The new fees do not grant additional permitted development rights or relax the separate conditions that have to be met before work starts.

Higher charges for conditions, certificates and amendments

Applicants dealing with conditions will see a marked increase. An application seeking confirmation of compliance with a condition attached to a householder planning permission rises from £89 to £125. Other condition-compliance applications move from £309 to £435. This can affect staged development programmes where several separate requests are needed, so the timing and grouping of submissions deserve advance thought.

Non-material amendments also attract revised fees: £53 for the relevant householder category, compared with £46, and £360 for other applications, compared with £309. The regulations separately amend the fees for lawful development certificates. For example, the specified charge for a certificate concerning lawfulness of failing to comply with a condition increases to £360. Some other lawful development certificate fees depend on the equivalent planning application charge, so not every certificate can be priced with a single figure.

The planning fee changes also modify charges for advertisements, mining and landfill monitoring, reserved matters, site visits and additional categories in the 2012 fees regulations. A fixed headline such as ’25 per cent more’ would therefore be misleading. The actual increases vary considerably, and several housing thresholds and charging formulae change as well as the amounts.

Which date decides the fee?

Regulation 1 states: These Regulations come into force on 8th December 2026. Regulation 12 then supplies the transitional protection. Broadly, the new amounts do not apply to an application or request made before commencement, nor to a site visit taking place before that date. A particular rule also protects deemed applications connected with enforcement notices issued before commencement. That does not mean every file uploaded on 7 December will automatically be treated as a completed planning application made on that date; applicants should ensure their submission satisfies the relevant statutory requirements.

For businesses with applications close to submission, the planning fee changes therefore raise a genuine budgeting and programme issue. Paying an old fee after the new commencement date may leave an application requiring a top-up, while submitting incomplete material solely to beat the deadline may create another problem. Applicants should check the relevant charging category, fee calculation and application-making requirements with the authority in advance.

The instrument expressly extends to England and Wales, but it amends the planning application fees regulations for England. It should not be reported as replacing the separate fee systems in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Regulation 12 also prepares for the annual indexation rules to apply to the amended figures from 1 April 2027; the December change and the following April’s indexation are two different dates.

Why the confirmed regulations matter now

What is new this week is the making of SI 2026/1192 after the earlier consultation and parliamentary scrutiny. It turns a draft proposal for December into enacted secondary legislation, with the operative date still in the future. The full made regulations contain the charging schedule and transition provisions, and the government’s national planning application fees publication contains the public fee tables.

My practical reading of the planning fee changes is that application timing will matter as much as the headline percentage. A householder, a developer submitting fifty dwellings and someone relying on permitted development prior approval all face different charging rules. Each should establish the applicable statutory category and effective date before treating the new fee as part of an agreed development budget. Nothing in these regulations itself decides whether a scheme should receive planning permission.