Planning fees may hit £100,000

FEES paid to submit planning applications to Scottish local authorities are set to rise by more than 500 per cent to £100,000 – but in exchange for a better system.

Property agency Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) estimates that revisions to the Planning Fee Regulations would, in some cases, increase the maximum planning fee from the present £15,950 to £100,000.

The sharp rise in prices risks hindering any recovery in the property development market, the firm warned. But other agents have said the increase in fees will be a fair trade-off if it delivers an improved planning service.

Stuart Winter, a senior development planner with JLL, said that the Scottish Government consultation on the plan has pledged to link the increases to planning fees to improve authority performance levels.

But he argued the benchmarks that will see planning fees reduced as a result of poor performance were “poorly defined”.

Winter said: “Essentially a situation could then arise where developers are required to pay the increased planning fees but receive no betterment in the planning authority service they receive for that fee increase.”

The proposed changes, outlined by planning minister Derek Mackay, were revealed by Scotland on Sunday in March.

At the time, Anthony Aitken, head of UK planning at property firm Colliers International, said a hike in the fees faced by Scottish developers is inevitable given how far they have fallen behind the levels charged by local authorities south of the Border.

Fees for large developments can be as much as £250,000 in England.

Aitken said developers will be happy to pay a bit more if they got a better system.

“What developers are after is certainty of outcome,” he said. “There is a consensus that they would pay to get a good service.”