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Planning applications to cost taxpayers £1bn over next five years
Council taxpayers will spend £1bn covering local authorities’ costs of processing planning applications in the next five years, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.
Local authorities are unable to recover the full cost of handling applications through planning fees, which are set nationally.
New analysis of local government expenditure statistics by the LGA has found that since fees were last increased in 2012, up to a third of planning applications have come at a cost to local authorities.
Planning departments process an average of 486,500 applications each year – meaning the total annual bill to council taxpayers is around £200m.
That equates to the cost of providing grant funding for 8,507 affordable new homes based on the levels available through the Homes and Communities Agency’s Affordable Homes Programme.
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The LGA warned that the shortfall is hampering the delivery of new homes and called for government to bring forward a commitment in February’s Housing White Paper to let councils increase planning fees.
It also called on ministers to test a local fee-setting scheme.
“It is wrong for communities to keep being forced to spend hundreds of millions each year to cover the cost of all planning applications,” said Martin Tett, leader of Buckinghamshire County Council and housing spokesperson for the LGA.
“Councils need to be able to recover the actual cost of applications and end such a needless waste of taxpayers’ money.
“Locally set fees would also allow councils to prevent increased costs being passed on to residents, while developers could contribute more to maintain high-quality planning decisions, and improve the ability of councils to speed up the planning process.”
