Masterplan Consent Areas: guidance

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Recouping costs through Discretionary Charging

107. An MCA is not necessarily about developers getting planning consent for free. There is a value, to developers and investors, in the certainty of having development consents in place, de-risking the proposal.

108. In order to put an MCA scheme in place, the planning authority will likely incur costs, for example through the need to analyse the site, consult, prepare a masterplan, and set out the type of development consented along with any necessary conditions. So authorities have the flexibility and ability to use discretionary charging to recoup costs.

109. Some planning authorities may not wish to recover their costs for preparation of an MCA scheme using discretionary charging. The certainty offered could bring other financial returns to the council, such as capital receipts following land sales (MCAs are also a way to enhance the viability and marketability of land for landowners, including land owned by the council), investment in infrastructure and increases in Council Tax and Business Rates.

110. There is also scope for schemes to be prepared collaboratively between planning authorities and the private sector and input from agencies sharing expertise, knowledge and costs.

111. Regulation 7 of The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024, amends The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 to insert new regulation 4A. This includes provisions which allow planning authorities to introduce charges in order to recoup their costs in preparing or altering an MCA scheme and also to charge for applications for the approval, consent or agreement required by a condition specified in an MCA scheme.

112. The cost of establishing individual MCA schemes will vary due to different site-specific requirements, and the information already available. Planning authorities will have discretion in how they set any fees/charges for carrying out development in an MCA, to recover their costs. Where using discretionary charging, we expect planning authorities will set out within the MCA scheme:

• details of the costs outlaid by the authority in establishing the MCA scheme;
• methodology of how such costs will be apportioned;
• fees expected to be paid by developers looking to carry out development within the MCA; and
• the cost of discharging MCA conditions.

113. An MCA scheme could include a ‘cost recovery’ condition linked to a schedule (covering the requirements of new Regulation 4A(3)) which includes the total cost of making or altering the MCA scheme and a methodology setting out how these costs are to be apportioned to recoup the MCA preparation or alteration costs. The schedule could also set out specific costs for discharging each condition. Some conditions will be straightforward and require less input from the planning authority when compared with conditions requiring consideration of technical or environmental information.

114. A condition similar to the following could be included within the MCA scheme, as a final condition:

Suggested condition

“To proceed with development within the masterplan consent area the developer must provide confirmation that all other relevant conditions have been met and approved. The developer must also provide payment to the planning authority of the fee set out in Schedule X.”

Reason

To support recovery of the planning authority’s costs in the making of the masterplan consent area scheme and the service of providing consent.

115. Regulation 4A(6) sets out that a planning authority charging fees to recover the cost of the making or alteration of an MCA scheme, should monitor the level of fees received and must publish a statement when its total costs have been recovered.