MD1443 Planning Unit Annual Review of External Fees and Charges

Planning Fees and Charges were last reviewed in summer 2014 and increased from the initial standard charge of £4,000 per request to £5,000 (approved under MD1376). The new charges were formally published and implemented 1st September 2014.

Effectively, this was a “catching up” fees and charges review to reflect cost recovery and the increased resource input to the service offered. The previous charge increase has been well received by planning and development customers, generating an increase in pre-application revenue from approximately £661,000 per annum to £762,000 per annum for the financial year end 2014-15.

To reflect the very significant and ongoing increases in demand for the highly valued pre-application advice service and the necessity to appropriately resource this demand, the pre application service is therefore being looked at, particularly the Development & Projects side of the Unit as part of the Planning Unit reorganisation.

From August 2015 it is proposed to uprate the standard charge by 10% from £5,000 to £5,500 and follow up meeting charge from £1,000 to £1,100. The net additional income and revenue will be reinvested directly into a reorganised and expanded planning service in order to meet growing demand and maintain an efficient and rapidly responsive quality pre-application advice service.