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Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications and Deemed Applications) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2008

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Dixon-Smith, and the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, for their support for our increased fees. It is perhaps worth saying that the increases have also been supported by the Local Government Association. The noble Baroness asked what we would do to monitor the implementation of the fees. Following the approval of the fees, the Department of Communities and Local Government has undertaken to review the impact in 12 months’ time and hold further discussions with the Local Government Association and other stakeholder groups about how best to fund the planning system in future. We also recognise that the planning fees regulations need consolidation. While that is something that we have not been able to contemplate during the recent spate of planning reform activity, we will obviously look to it in future. Because the increases are across the board, they do not impact more heavily on particular sectors of business or the community. The mechanisms for calculating fees are not being altered. As I explained, there is only one entirely new fee; that, too, was welcomed. The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, made a valid point about the size of applications and the relative impact in terms of cost burden on the local authority. Obviously, any scheme for raising fees and charges has some imbalances in it. We think that we have got the balance about right here. The noble Baroness also asked whether we had thought about fees being set locally. We consulted on that point, because there has been an expression of interest in the past. However, I am afraid that it has not attracted widespread support from planning authorities. Of course, fashions and habits change and it is something we would keep an open mind about for the future. In April, we will publish a new explanatory fees circular, which will set out how fees work. As I have said, we will informally review the impact next year. Obviously, we will seek to identify with the LGA and others areas of communal ground on how to ensure that we more than adequately continue to resource planning services in the future. I do not think that I need to cover anything else. I am grateful to both noble Lords for their support. In conclusion, it perhaps should be noted that the impact of the fees increases will not add significantly to the cost of development for developers. The typical planning application for a major development accounts for something like 0.3 per cent of the total cost of development, so it is a very small amount. But it has to be calibrated at the right level to ensure that we properly collect income into the local authorities.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
700 c99-100GC 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
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