draft Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, deemed applications, requests and site visits) (england) (amendment) regulations 2017

Alok Sharma Excerpts

Wednesday 13th December 2017 General Committees

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Alok Sharma)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017.

The draft regulations will bring forward the 20% increase in nationally set planning application fees that we promised in the housing White Paper, introduce fees for new categories of development and enable development corporations to charge for pre-application planning advice. If approved by the House, as they were in the other place, the draft regulations will come into effect 28 days after they are made.

The planning application regime is the gateway to new homes, economic development and regeneration, so it is important that we support and work with local authorities to promote excellence in their services. We want to ensure that the planning system is valued, resilient and capable of providing the service that local people and planning applicants expect. We also want to provide local authorities with the capacity and capability to support the Government’s objective to build the homes we need more quickly.

I recognise that planning fees have not increased since 2012. The 20% increase in planning fees set out in the draft regulations is a significant step towards addressing the widespread concerns of under-resourced local planning authorities. It is worth noting that the increase is greater than it would have been had it been linked to inflation. In recognising the wider pressures on local planning authorities, we stated in our housing White Paper that we would increase planning fees by 20% for those authorities that

“commit to invest the additional fee income in their planning department.”

Ring-fencing the additional fees in that way will ensure that resources are directly invested to support the delivery of an effective planning system. All local planning authorities in England have accepted that offer.

Based on current activity, that uplift in planning fees could generate more than £75 million of additional fee income annually for local authorities. That is equal to the average salaries of approximately 1,600 planners and other professionals who play a role in the planning process, and should bring total planning application fee income to approximately £450 million a year. The 20% increase will keep planning application fees at a modest level for householders and developers compared with overall project costs, while providing local authorities with the necessary resources to turn around applications efficiently and effectively.

In addition to the 20% fee increase for planning applications and advertisement consents set out in regulation 2, the draft regulations will make a number of other technical changes in relation to fees charged by local planning authorities. In developing the draft regulations, we undertook a technical consultation in 2016 on proposals to increase planning application fees. The majority of respondents from all sectors supported increasing planning fees.

Let me turn to the specifics of the draft regulations. Regulation 1 sets out their scope: they apply only in England and will come into force 28 days after they are made. Regulation 2 provides for an increase in all existing fees for planning applications and advertisement consents, and brings forward four technical changes.

Regulation 3 puts in place the fee a local authority will be able to charge for a permission-in-principle application. Permission in principle is a new route to planning permission, which gives developers up-front certainty that sites are suitable for housing-led development in principle before they need to work up detailed and costly development proposals. The draft regulations will introduce a new fee of £402 per 0.1 hectare for applications for permission in principle. That follows new powers that we intend to provide to local authorities to grant permissions in principle for suitable sites on application.

The same principle applies in regulation 4, which enables any mayoral development corporation or urban development corporation to charge for giving pre-application advice. That provides the same powers to development corporations as already exist for other local planning authorities.

Regulation 5(1) amends a reference to the relevant legislation relating to permitted development rights. In effect, it changes the reference from the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.

Regulation 5(2) provides for a planning fee to be charged by local planning authorities for applications necessary because a permitted development right has been removed. The right could have been removed through either an article 4 direction of the 2015 order or a condition imposed on a planning permission. That change delivers a commitment made during the passage of the Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017.

Finally, regulation 5(3) expands the scope of prior approval applications, for which a fee of £96 can be charged. The regulations include the prior approvals required as part of the new permitted development rights that were introduced in April 2015 and April 2017. Those permitted development rights include the rights for the installation of solar photovoltaic equipment on non-domestic buildings, the erection of click-and-collect facilities within the land area of a shop, the temporary use of buildings or land for film-making purposes and the provision of temporary school buildings on vacant commercial land for state-funded schools.

We continue to keep the resourcing of local authority planning departments and where fees can be charged under review. The housing White Paper promised a subsequent consultation on a possible further 20% increase in planning fees. We published in September this year local housing needs consultation proposals entitled “Planning for the right homes in the right places”. We consulted on the potential to increase planning fees by a further 20% and how that could be targeted for authorities that are delivering the homes that communities need. That consultation closed recently, and the responses received will inform our thinking on how to ensure that planning fees deliver the resources necessary to support the high performance of local planning authorities. I commend the regulations to the Committee.

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[Alok Sharma]

Fees for planning applications have been the subject of successive regulations since 1981, but have not been increased since 2012. The debate is about a timely and essential adjustment of the fees that local planning authorities can charge. 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, and because the increases are being applied across the board, they do not impact more heavily on particular sectors of business or, indeed, the community.

I want to refer to some of the points made by the hon. Member for Oldham West and Royton. First, I welcome his and his party’s support for these vital regulations and changes. I think we can all agree that we want to see local authorities, and planning departments particularly, funded and working efficiently and effectively. That is precisely why we set it out in the White Paper that we would introduce this increase in planning fees.

The hon. Gentleman talked about the need for further funding. As I noted, in our recent consultation we asked for views on an additional 20% increase, and we will of course review the feedback that we get from that. He also raised the issue of the potential linking of the fees to inflation, using the CPI. As he knows, the regulations do not provide for indexed linking, and we would of course need primary legislation to amend the enabling power. As I set out in my opening remarks, the 20% increase that we hope to implement within the 28 days means that the increase will be greater than if a link to inflation as a measure for increasing these fees had been in place back in 2012.

The hon. Gentleman also raised a point about local authorities having the ability to set their own fees. We do not consider that allowing local planning authorities to set their own fees is the answer to resourcing challenges, as there is no guarantee that the additional income would go into planning services or would deliver efficiencies.

There is also a risk that uncertainty in relation to fees in some areas might dissuade homeowners and small developers from undertaking development and introduce unpredictability when we need developers to accelerate the number of homes they are building. However, I fully accept that we need to keep the resourcing of local planning authorities and the circumstances in which local fees can be charged under review.

The hon. Gentleman raised a number of other points. He talked about trialling or piloting full-cost recovery. Full-cost recovery, 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.

The hon. Gentleman raised issues around the permitted development impact of click and collect. I want to clarify that this right applies only within a shop’s curtilage. It cannot be outside someone’s home.

[Jim McMahon]

Will the Minister clarify whether that includes the outer curtilage—the boundary on the deeds —or just the inside of the property?

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[Alok Sharma]

I will write to the hon. Gentleman to clarify that. The key point is that the impact of this change is not quite as he outlined.

[Jim McMahon]

I think this is a slightly bigger issue than it has been given credit for. I understood from the advice that this does include the outer curtilage. At a local shop with a click-and-collect service, the locker could be on the outside—right near the front door of a residential property—under permitted development rights in this scheme. This is not for today, but the Government ought to go away and look at the impact of that.

[Alok Sharma]

If the hon. Gentleman writes to me to set out his thoughts, we will consider them. The changes we are discussing today relate to the permitted development rights regime.

The hon. Gentleman raised the interesting issue of education and investment for planners. We are working with organisations such as the Royal Town Planning Institute to support the education and training of planners through the provision of bursary programmes and other initiatives.

We have debated today regulations and an increase in planning fees that are widely welcomed by local authorities and those who seek planning permission. I reiterate that it is vital we have well-resourced, effective and efficient local authority planning departments to provide new homes and deliver economic growth, as the hon. Gentleman set out. We expect local authorities to match the recommended fee increases with an ongoing improvement of service when handling planning applications. In introducing these changes, we are ensuring that local authorities have the resources to take on and deal efficiently with all increasing demands made of them.

Question put and agreed to.