My Lords, Amendments 267 and 287 have been tabled by my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham and the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, respectively. I assure your Lordships that the Government understand the concerns about stretched resources in local planning authorities. However, we do not believe that enabling local planning authorities to vary fees and charges is the way to answer resourcing issues, and it does not provide any
incentive to tackle inefficiencies. Local authorities having different fees creates uncertainty and unfairness for applicants and, if set too high, could risk unintended consequences by discouraging development.
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My noble friend Lord Young of Cookham and the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, both brought up the question of whether we could loosen the local authority planning fees. As I have said, having different fees creates inconsistency, more complexity and unfairness for applicants, who could be required to pay different fee levels for the same types of development. Planning fees provide clarity and consistency for local authorities, developers and home owners. However, we are consulting on fees. We are seeking views on whether the additional income arising from the proposed fee increase could and should be ring-fenced for spending within the local authority planning department. Past increases have required a written commitment from all local planning authorities in advance of implementation.
The noble Baronesses, Lady Pinnock and Lady Taylor of Stevenage, also brought up the issue of capacity and capability in local planning departments. We recognise the challenge that many local planning authorities are facing. We aim to ensure that local authority planning departments can build the capacity and develop the skills to support the design of our neighbourhoods, in order to regenerate our towns, deliver levelling up and implement the changes proposed in the Bill. We continue to work with local planning authorities and the broader planning sector to design and, we hope, deliver the support needed so that planning authorities have the skills and capacity necessary to modernise and implement change. Some of those things are in the Bill—for example, in respect of using technology.
Our priority is to ensure that all local planning authorities are able to increase their fees through a national fee increase. As we have heard, we are currently consulting on proposals to support the greater resourcing of local planning authorities through an increase in planning fees by 35% for major applications and by 25% for other applications. Subject to the outcome of this consultation and parliamentary approval, we would seek to introduce a fee increase at the earliest opportunity this year.
Amendment 283, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, and introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, seeks to enable statutory consultees, who are required to provide expert advice to local planning authorities and other planning decision-makers, to recover their costs from applicants seeking planning permissions. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Young, for tabling this amendment. We share the view that there is an increasing need for further funding opportunities to help key statutory consultees secure the right resources at the right time, so that they can continue to provide expert and timely advice in respect of proposals coming forward through the planning application process. That is why we have tabled our own Amendment 285C, to enable more cost recovery for work dealing with planning applications. This amendment bears many similarities to the proposal of the noble Baroness, Lady Young.
Our amendment will also allow statutory consultees to set their own charges for applicants, subject to limitations, and ensure that there is transparency as to the services provided and what is being charged, as well as empowering statutory consultees to withdraw their services when fees or charges have not been paid. The Secretary of State will also reserve the right to make regulations to manage any impacts on applicants—for instance, in relation to SME developers and householders. As this government amendment is being brought before the House today, I gratefully request that the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, on behalf of the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, does not press her amendment. The noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, brought up the issue of ambiguity. We have been engaging with colleagues across His Majesty’s Government. While we are satisfied that this does not inhibit applicants paying for advice provided on planning performance agreements, we would like to avoid ambiguity, so I am happy to take this into further consideration. Perhaps she could let the noble Baroness, Lady Young, know that.
On government Amendment 285C, statutory consultees play an important role in the planning application process, providing expert advice to local planning authorities and applicants on technical matters such as flood risk, biodiversity, heritage and highways safety. Going forward, they will continue to play an important role through our planning reforms. These bodies are pivotal in shaping development proposals, but such organisations face growing financial and resourcing pressures which will become more acute as the volume and complexity of projects increases.
Our estimates indicate that the main national statutory consultees currently deal with around 50,000 applications per year, many of which involve substantive engagement with the applicant to address the issues. We estimate that this overall service costs around £60 million per year. This does not include the thousands of applications dealt with by locally based but equally important statutory consultees such as local highways authorities and lead local flood authorities.
In the other House we moved a clause to introduce statutory consultee cost recovery within the nationally significant infrastructure project regime, and today I propose a similar measure to allow cost recovery on activities relating to applications under the planning Acts. This power will allow prescribed bodies named in regulations to charge fees for providing advice or information in connection with applications or proposals under the “planning Acts” as defined in Section 336 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This includes activity related to planning applications under that Act, as well as applications for listed building consent and hazardous substances consent. This will cover substantive engagement throughout the process—from pre-app discussions all the way through to the discharge of conditions and reserved matters—between the statutory consultee and the applicants.
The Government recognise that many local planning authorities, as well as the wider planning sector, are facing capacity and capability challenges. That is why this power ensures that those who benefit from the advice foot the bill for it, so the cost of the advice will not be passed on to the decision-maker. In addition,
elsewhere in the Bill we are taking powers to speed up the planning system, and we also want to ensure that smaller-scale applicants are not priced out. That is why we are taking powers to make regulations which exclude certain advice, assistance or information from charging. This should allow us to create a system which does not create additional barriers to SME developers and householders.
This measure will enable the establishment of a system that allows key statutory consultees to recover costs for the planning advice they give to applicants on a wide range of applications and related activities. I hope that noble Lords see how important this is to enable more effective and self-sufficient statutory consultees within the planning application process, and that they will support this important amendment.