The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has launched a consultation on proposals to establish a new national default fee schedule for planning applications and on the principles of local fee setting.
The consultation seeks views on proposals to:
- establish a new national default fee schedule, based on 90% of estimated costs, to bring planning fees to a level closer to cost recovery and act as a baseline from which a new local fee setting model will operate
- introduce new fees and restructure existing fee categories in order to reduce complexity for users
- implement a surcharge on planning fees for statutory consultees, set in the region of 10% of the national default fee
- establish the key principles behind local fee setting, as well as seek views on the potential to implement a cap on locally set fees
- review the future role of discretionary services such as Planning Performance Agreements and pre-application advice in light of proposed increases to default fees and the introduction of the local variation model
This consultation closes at 11:59pm on 18 May 2026.
The consultation can be found here. at:
