Industry News: Planning Application Fees Set to Increase - 1st April 2025
- Blue Lava Architecture
- Feb 11
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 13
On 13th January 2025, the Government laid out a draft bill before parliament to increase planning application fees in England and Wales from 1st April 2025. The resulting changes will now result in higher costs for most applications. Our advice:
If you are currently planning a project, submit your application A.S.A.P to avoid additional costs!
Current fees: Below is a table of planning application fees that you would pay, if you submitted your application before 1st April 2025.
The latest update in 2023 increased planning fees and introduced an automatic annual adjustment in line with the Consumer Price Index, with the first increase scheduled for April 1st, 2025.
However, the Government has since acknowledged that the planned inflation-based increase will not be sufficient to cover the costs required by local planning authorities.
As a result, some planning application fees will see a 100% increase on April 1st, 2025.
Proposed Fees:
Here’s what you can expect to pay for the same applications from 1st April 2025. These include the £70 online service charge:
Indexation Planning application fees are now subject to indexation. The increased fee rates will be fixed for a year and not updated (to take account on inflation) until 1st April 2026.
Therefore, the planning fees listed in the table above, are exempt from the inflation increase this year, and will further increase from 1st April 2026 and beyond (unless the government increases them again).
Why have the Government increased planning fees? The increase in planning fees was swiftly implemented following the publication of the Skills and Resources Survey, which highlighted the urgent need for additional resources in Local Planning Authorities (LPAs). The survey revealed a £262 million shortfall in LPA development management services, with household applications—making up 53% of all planning applications—contributing the most to this deficit. As a result, the fee increase aims to help fund these much-needed resources.
In Conclusion:
Planning application fees will increase on April 1st and will continue to rise annually in line with inflation.
To avoid the higher planning fees, we recommend reaching out to Blue Lava before March 7th, 2025, to ensure we have enough time to submit your application before the deadline. Please note that we expect a high volume of applications during this period and will do our best to accommodate as many clients as possible.
Beat the deadline by getting in touch today!
Disclaimer
The information in this blog post reflects the latest available planning fee details at the time of writing. While we aim for accuracy, final fees are subject to confirmation by the UK Government and may vary upon formal announcement. We recommend reaching out to us directly or checking the Planning Portal for the most up-to-date information before submitting your application.
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