Planning application fees should only go up if the process improves

By Paul Smith2026-06-02T06:01:00

Paul Smith Strategic Land Group-Photoroom 1

Simply charging more for a broken system doesn’t fix it. Here’s what ministers should do instead to improve planning, writes Paul Smith

Planning application fees are going up again.

The government’s rationale for doing so is sound - planning departments are significantly under-resourced, with income falling way below expenditure (although the gap has narrowed over the last 15 years) and application fees failing to cover the cost to local authorities of determining them. Under the proposals to improve resourcing, councils will be allowed to charge fees equivalent to 90% of the typical cost of processing an application – the proposed discount is to encourage the pursuit of cost efficiencies.

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