EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications and Deemed Applications) Regulations 1989 (‘the 1989 Regulations’). The 1989 Regulations make provision for the payment of fees to local planning authorities in respect of applications made under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 for planning permission for development or for approval of matters reserved by an outline planning permission, in respect of fees for applications for certificates of lawful use or development, in respect of applications for consent for the display of advertisements and in respect of certain applications made under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995; and for the payment of fees to the Secretary of State in respect of applications for planning permission which are deemed to have been made in connection with an appeal against an enforcement notice.

These Regulations amend the 1989 Regulations to increase certain fees payable under those Regulations. The increase in fees is approximately 25%, though with two exceptions. In respect of applications in fee categories 6 and 7(a) (relating to the alteration of existing dwelling houses or development within the curtilage), the increase is 11%. In respect of maximum fees payable by virtue of regulation 2, the increase is to a level of £250,000 for all applications (or £125,000 for an outline application), other than applications for minerals or waste development in fee categories 9(a) and 11, where the new maximum is £65,000.

Regulation 2 also amends the 1989 Regulations to add a new category of fee where a local planning authority confirms in writing, following a request, that a condition or conditions attached to an earlier grant of planning permission have been complied with.

Replacement scales of fees (Part 2 of Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 to the 1989 Regulations) are set out in the Schedules to these Regulations.

These Regulations revoke the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications and Deemed Applications) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2005 (S.I.2005/843), which made changes to the level of fees in the 1989 Regulations.

An Impact Assessment has been prepared in relation to these Regulations. It has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament and can also be viewed on the website of the Department for Communities and Local Government, www.communities.gov.uk.