Welsh Government announced a consultation on increasing planning application and related fees by 20% yesterday. A typical £380 fee would rise to £460.00. Inflation over the period of !0% suggests £420 at current rates. The proposal therefore would deliver a real term 10% increase, at least at the point of introduction.

We expect, as is becoming the norm with Welsh Government planning consultations, this is less consultation and more pre-announcement of it doing (or undoing) something. The Consultation tells us:

• Our evidence suggests the current fee levels for applications are not sufficient to run an efficient development management service as cost recovery is not being achieved. LPAs continue to lose vital income, with the inequality between fees and costs expanding.

You need only look at weekly submission lists to see that many Councils are now - as a direct consequence of legislation Welsh Government introduced - swamped with “low” fee earning applications such as those to discharge planning conditions or for non and minor material amendments. Each bears the same core costs (receipt, administration, consultation, actual processing and issue of decision notice - not least “living decision” notices) as much larger applications.

Historically, planning fees don’t fund planning services directly. In most cases fee income goes directly into core Local Authority funds which planning services are funded from. The consultation tells us In return (for the 20% increase) , we require the additional income generated from the fee will remain the service provision budgets of LPAs and not be offset by an equivalent reduction in corporate funding for the service.

We are sure clients will welcome increased funding retained within Planning Services especially where this plug gaps in skills, improves resources and services to help them achieve placemaking and efficient processing of planning applications. They will not welcome the status quo.

The Consultation also announces future review of the Planning Service funding and fee regimes, with Welsh Government intending to

• consider need to reform the method for charging fees and fees levels in the longer term.

• carry out research on the true costs of running development management services in greater detail against the cost of individual applications.

• carry out investigative work into the efficiency of development management teams in determining applications, speed of determination and processes and procedures..

More change to come then?

The Consultation is open until 13 March 2020.