New Legislation – relating to the Fees Regulations 2012 (01/04/2025) …

The following 1 new Statutory Instrument (SI) comes into force on 01/04/2025:

New Legislation:

  • April 2025: SI 2025 No. 342 - The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025 (pdf) (link).

Notes:

  • The above SI 2025 No. 342 makes amendments to the following SI:
    - The Fees Regulations 2012.
  • The "Explanatory Memorandum" (link) to the above SI 2025 No. 342 includes the following information:
    - "[The Fees Regulations 2012] were last amended by [the previous SI 2023 No. 1197], which increased fees by 35% for major applications and 25% for all other applications from 6 December 2023. Additionally, [the previous SI 2023 No. 1197] introduced an indexation mechanism, allowing planning fees to be adjusted annually in line with inflation starting from 1 April 2025.".
    - "These Regulations [SI 2025 No. 342] amend [the Fees Regulations 2012] by the following:".
    - "Regulation 3 of these Regulations [SI 2025 No. 342] amends regulation 14 of [the Fees Regulations 2012] which sets out the fees for certain applications under the GPDO made to the local planning authority for their determination as to whether their prior approval is required. As set out in paragraph 5.9 above, most prior approval application fees under regulation 14 of [the Fees Regulations 2012] are subject to a flat fee of either £120 or £258 if the development includes building operations. The effect of this amendment is to increase the fees from £120 to £240 and to increase the fee from £258 to £516.".
    - "Regulation 4 of these Regulations [SI 2025 No. 342] amends regulation 16 of [the Fees Regulations 2012] to increase the fees for requesting written confirmation of compliance with a condition attached to a planning permission from £43 to £86 in the case of a permission for householder development (within categories 6 and 7 of the table in Part 2 of the Schedule to [the Fees Regulations 2012]); and from £145 to £298 in any other case. The amendment also clarifies that this fee applies to requests to confirm compliance with a statutory biodiversity net gain condition.".
    - "Regulation 5 of these Regulations [SI 2025 No. 342] amends Part 1, paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 of [the Fees Regulations 2012] which sets out the fee payable where an application is made pursuant to section 73 of the 1990 Act which provides for applications for planning permission to develop land without complying with previously imposed planning conditions. This amendment introduces a three-tier structure fee for section 73 applications, the effect of which is that householder section 73 applications are increased to £86, £2,000 for major development section 73 applications and for all other section 73 applications, £586.".
    - "Regulation 5 [of SI 2025 No. 342] also increases the fees for two miscellaneous fee categories which had previously been erroneously set too low. The first correction relates to the fee payable for an outline application for the erection of a building where the area of gross floor created exceeds 3,750 square metres, the fee is corrected to £31,385. The second correction relates to an application for the erection, on land used for the purposes of agriculture, or buildings used for agricultural purposes where the gross floor space created is at least 1,000 metres but does not exceed 4,215 square metres, the fee is corrected to £5,077. This fee was miscalculated in [the previous SI 2023 No. 1197] and has now been amended to the correct fee level for larger agricultural buildings.".
    - "Regulation 6 [of SI 2025 No. 342] makes related transitional provision. This includes provision to the effect that the annual increase of fees as provided for in regulation 18A of [the Fees Regulations 2012] applies to the fee amounts in these Regulations [SI 2025 No. 342] from 1 April 2026.".
  • Note: The above fee increases made by SI 2025 No. 342 on 01/04/2025 are separate from the annual fee increases on 01/04/2025 (note: for more information about the latter, please view this post). The annual fee increases on 01/04/2025 do not apply to those fees that are amended by SI 2025 No. 342 on 01/04/2025 (due to the transitional provision set out by regulation 6 of the latter SI).

Other Sources of Information:

  • January 2022: [DEFRA] Consultation on Biodiversity Net Gain Regulations and Implementation (link).
  • February 2023: [DEFRA] Consultation on Biodiversity Net Gain regulations and implementation - Government response and summary of responses (link).
  • March 2024: An accelerated planning system - consultation (link) (pdf print version of HTML webpage).
    - Note: For more information about the above document, please view this post.
  • July 2024: Proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system (link) (pdf print version of HTML webpage).
    - Note: For more information about the above document, please view this post.
  • December 2024: Government response to the proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system consultation (link) (pdf print version of HTML webpage).
    - Note: For more information about the above document, please view this post.
  • March 2025: "Explanatory Memorandum" to SI 2025 No. 342 (pdf) (link).
  • March 2025: MHCLG guidance - "Planning fees: annual indexation from 1 April" (link).
  • Ongoing (from October 2014 onwards): Guidance - "Fees for planning applications" (link).

Updates to the Planning Jungle website: