Application fees for prior approval under Part 20

The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020 No.936), which were made on 5 August, came into force on 2 September. Readers will recall that the new fees for prior approval applications were announced some time ago, so these new fees were entirely as expected. In the event, the potential window of opportunity to bang in a prior approval application under the new PD rights without having to pay a fee lasted for only one day. I wonder if any lucky applicants managed to get their applications in on 1 September, and so avoided having to pay the application fee?

The fee for a prior approval application under Part 20 (construction of new dwellings) where the number of new dwellings proposed is 50 or fewer is £334 for each new dwelling; but where the number of new dwellings proposed by the development exceeds 50, the fee is £16,525, plus an additional £100 for each new dwelling in excess of 50, subject to a maximum in total of £300,000.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is a ‘free go’ for a second application under Part 20 within 12 months, in circumstances similar to those applying to planning applications; but this ‘free go’ does not extend to prior approval applications under other Parts of the Second Schedule to the GPDO.

© MARTIN H GOODALL