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Planning fees to rise by 20%, as government starts review into ‘landbanking’

Housing and Planning Minister Alok Sharma this week announced that planning fees would be increasing by 20% in the next few weeks, as promised by the Housing White Paper.

In a Parliamentary debate on Wednesday, Sharma rejected the full cost recovery approach which has been on the Conservative agenda for many years, but kept open the option to charge more.

The 20% increase in planning fees will be enacted in statutory regulations over the coming weeks and is a step towards addressing the widespread concerns of under-resourced local planning authorities. With housing one of the major issues in politics now, the Minister stressed the importance of having well-resourced, effective and efficient local authority planning departments to provide new homes and deliver economic growth.  He also stated that they expected local authorities to match the recommended fee increases with an ongoing improvement of service.

Rejecting full cost recovery, the Minister said that this, by itself, does not provide a link to service improvements. “Charging at cost recovery removes the incentives for local authorities to reduce their cost, if they know they can pass the cost directly on to applicants.  However, with this 20% increase, it will still be the case that most planning fees represent a small fraction of the full cost of any development to which they relate.”

The extra cost comes at a time when former cabinet minister Sir Oliver Letwin is looking at ‘landbanking’.  Letwin is expected to bring a forensic approach to his review of the gap between permissions granted and homes built, and will report in the Spring.

To get in touch with us about the White Paper, the government’s review into planning, or Sir Oliver Letwin’s review into ‘landbanking’, email us.

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What people say about us…

Smooth operation

Many thanks for last night: a very smooth operation!

Message was very welcome

Was a great result – especially to receive unanimous approval! Many thanks also for you and your team’s work in the run up to the committee. Getting those messages across really helped and was evident by the feedback given by members on both sides of the political spectrum … notably on the successfully engagement with residents and how the scheme responded accordingly. Message was very welcome!

On point

Harry was on point and has been the whole way through. We are all very chuffed. We are already preparing for another rather testing application on another site and you can be certain that we will engage you

Appreciated

Thanks Richard, your help has been much appreciated. Will let you know when the next job comes up!

Big guns!

Thanks for your and the team’s help. It was good to know we had the proverbial big guns in our armoury!

You kept calm

Many thanks for that: your team did very well, and kept a lot calmer than me! Matt was a sensible wise head, as was Alex, but he also made me think succinctly for the questions and how to answer, which is a great skill to try and acquire. Especially for someone as verbose as me!

A unanimous approval

Councillors praised both officers and the developer on their work and engagement.

A unanimous approval 5-0

With your help

Really pleased to hear the news this evening

With your help, we got it through !!!!

Best Regards!

Truly excellent example

Great news that we approved 60 houses on green belt last night.

It was tremendous that the Chair said that this was a “truly excellent example of good consultation…”

Gave me more confidence

Thank you – we were both somewhat surprised given the level of objections but in fact the committee hardly discussed the scheme at all before consenting it.

Thanks to your team for preparing me well for the committee which certainly gave me more confidence.

A big relief

Thank you. A big relief. As I am sure you can appreciate, we are delighted!

Your team did a great job, especially Matt who was integral.

I look forward to catching up soon.

Unanimous

196 flats approved unanimously, thanks to all involved.

Professional and effective

I wanted to thank you and all at Thorncliffe for managing the consultation process so professionally and effectively. This, without doubt, played a crucial role in gaining the approval.

Once again, all our thanks.

Was a good result

Cant remember the last time I got anything through unanimously!

Was a good result, it’s the right scheme for the site and of course we had a great team including yourselves working on it,

First class troops

Richard. Your troops did a first class job as always. Many thanks

Praise for communityUK

Well done for the way you presented tonight’s online consultation. I thought it was an excellent format.

Great result last night

I just wanted to say thank you again for all your help with the great result last night.

You have been tremendous and it is much appreciated.

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