Planning Circular 2/2022 The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) (Scotland) Regulations 2022

7. Calculation of fees

7.1 Site area and floor space

7.1.1 Wherever a fee is based on the site area, the site area is defined as the area to which the application relates; that is to say, the land being developed including any which changes its use as part of the development. This will normally be shown edged in red on the plan accompanying the application, while other land in the same ownership but not being developed is normally identified separately.

7.1.2 Where a fee is based on site area and the proposed development relates to only a small part of the site the application may be restricted to the part of the site where the development is to occur by edging that part of the site in red.

7.1.3 Wherever a fee is based on floor space, the floor space is taken to be the gross floor space (all storeys) to be created by the development shown in the application. For fees purposes this measurement is an external measurement, and includes the thickness of external and internal walls. Floor space does not include other areas inside a building which are not readily usable by humans or animals, e.g. lift shafts, tanks, loft spaces.

7.1.4 Where buildings featuring or comprising canopies are concerned, there can be no simple rule as to whether floor space is being created by the erection of the canopy, but the absence of external walls is not the determining factor. Petrol filling station canopies are, for example, unlikely to create floor space, but a dutch barn or other covered storage area would do.

7.1.5 Where floor space or site area (as the case may be) is not an exact multiple of the unit of measurement provided by the fees scale, the amount remaining is taken to be a whole unit for fees purposes. For advice on common floor space in mixed development see paragraphs 9.1.1 to 9.1.3.

7.1.6 The fee is always determined on the basis of the application as made. Even if permission is granted for a development of a different size, or if the application is amended by agreement in the course of discussion with the applicant, no adjustment is made to the fee payable.

7.2 Buildings on the site of demolished buildings

7.2.1 If an applicant intends to demolish an existing building and to rebuild on the same site the fee payable will be based on the area of the new building. If, for example, it were proposed to demolish a factory with 1,000 sqm of floor space and to erect one in its place of 2,000 sqm, the fee payable would be for the total floor space created by the new development i.e. 2,000 sqm.

7.3 Dwellinghouses

7.3.1 The Regulations define "dwellinghouse" for fees purposes as "a building or part of a building which is used as a single private dwellinghouse, and for no other purpose"; this differs from the GPDO definition, and includes a flat.

7.3.2 Fee calculations can be affected:

a. by whether existing accommodation involved in a proposal already amounts to a dwellinghouse, and

b. by whether accommodation to be created (e.g. by erection or change of use) will amount to a dwellinghouse.

7.3.3 The definition of a dwellinghouse would include:

a. private houses, flats and maisonettes (authorities will need to decide on the facts of each case whether a bed-sit flat is sufficiently self-contained to constitute a dwellinghouse: it is not practicable to cover all the possibilities here);

b. a house in multiple occupation with some rooms shared communally;

c. a holiday flat if self-contained and owned by a private owner (but not if let on a short-term basis to paying guests).

7.3.4 Not included is anything which is not a building - e.g. a caravan.

7.4 Planning permission in principle

7.4.1 Applications for planning permission in principle are charged on the following basis:

7.4.2 Residential development

• Where only one dwellinghouse is to be created, £600
• Where more than one dwellinghouse is to be created and the site area does not exceed 2.5 hectares the fee is £600 for each 0.1 hectare up to 2.5 hectares of the site area.
• Where the site area exceeds 2.5 hectares the fee is £600 for each 0.1 hectare up to 2.5 hectares of the site area and then £300 for each 0.1 hectare in excess of 2.5 hectares, subject to a maximum of £75,000

7.4.3 Non-residential buildings

• £600 for each 0.1 hectare up to 2.5 hectares of the site area, and then £300 for each 0.1 hectare in excess of 2.5 hectares, subject to a maximum of £75,000.

7.4.4 An application for planning permission in principle must be made in the way described in the Development Management Regulations. The applicant may include details of the development, provided that details of certain matters are not given in that application and can still be identified in a condition by the planning authority for subsequent approval.

7.5 Approval of matters specified in conditions

7.5.1 Where planning permission in principle is granted, applications for AMSC on that planning permission in principle are subject to a payment of a fee.

7.5.2 Except where liable to the flat rate fee described below, an application for AMSC is charged at the same rate as for full applications for planning permission. The fee is calculated under the category or categories appropriate to the development as a whole, on the normal basis of the number of dwellinghouses, the site area or the amount of floor space created. So for a housing scheme, an application will incur - if not the flat rate fee - a fee based on the number of dwellinghouses to be erected. If the information needed to calculate the fee is not apparent from the application or the planning permission in principle, applicants will need to be asked to supply it.

7.5.3 Where an AMSC application relates only to one part or phase of the development covered by the PPP, fees should be charged on the basis of the number of dwellinghouses, the floor space or site area included in that part or phase, and similarly for subsequent applications.

7.5.4 An AMSC application made after obtaining the planning permission in principle for a development incurs a fee at the full rate, whatever matters are involved, until the total amount paid by the applicant in respect of the matters is equal to the fee that would have been paid at that time had approval been sought all at once in an application for the whole of the development covered by the original planning permission in principle. When that point is reached, any and all further applications pursuant to that PPP will attract the flat rate fee of £500.