The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities has announced that updates to the Town and Country Planning Regulations 2023 have been approved.  The updated regulations do the following:

• Increase planning application fees by 35% for applications for major development and 25% for all other applications.
• Introduce an annual indexation of planning applications fees, capped at 10%, from 1 April 2025.
• Remove the fee exemption for repeat applications (the ‘free-go’). An applicant will still be able to benefit from a free-go if their application was withdrawn or refused in the preceding 12 months, subject to all other conditions for the free-go being met.
• Reduce the Planning Guarantee for non-major planning applications from 26 to 16 weeks.
• Introduce a new prior approval fee of £120 for applications for prior approval for development by the Crown on closed defence sites.

The new fees will come into force on 6th December 2023. For further information, please click here