Publication - Consultation paper

Planning performance and fees: consultation

Published: 18 December 2019
Topic: Building, planning and design
ISBN: 9781839604409

Consultation on revising the planning performance and fees regimes.

Impact Assessments

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA)

The technical information contained within an EIA Report can be substantial. Specialist skills and expertise may also be required in order to properly understand and where necessary address some of the more technical areas, requiring staff to receive specialist training or seek input from outwith the planning service or local authority. This can ultimately result in additional costs for the planning authority. Some authorities have indicated they would wish to see the requirement for an EIA being a trigger for attracting an enhanced fee. Although we are aware that in certain circumstances the need for an EIA is not always known at the stage of submission. Consideration would need to be given as to whether a supplementary fee would be payable at the point it is determined whether an EIA is required.

The number of applications subject to EIA is, however, a small proportion of the total number of applications received a year. The figures for 2018-19 show that 26 local applications which were determined required an EIA.

Do you consider that submission of an EIA should warrant a supplementary fee in all cases?

Please give reasons for your answer

If so what might an appropriate charge be?

Hybrid Applications

Fees for applications for planning permission in principle are calculated at half the fee for a full planning permission. However, we have been aware of some circumstances where an applicant has submitted an application for planning permission in principle which provides additional detail that would normally be considered through an application for Approval of Matters specified in Conditions. This has been unofficially referred to as a hybrid application.

Do you think that applications for planning permission in principle should continue to be charged at half the standard fee?

Should there be a different fee for 'hybrid applications' as described here?

Please give reasons for your answer

Charging for SG services

All applications submitted through the Planning Portal in England which attract a planning fee of £60 or more to be paid incur a service charge of £20.83 (+ VAT).

The income from the service charge is retained by the Planning Portal to cover the costs of delivering the payment service, to invest in improving the planning application service and to put the business on a secure financial footing in order to continue to deliver services, content and interactive guidance.

Should the Scottish Government introduce a service charge for submitting an application through eDevelopment (ePlanning and eBuilding Standards)?

This income would allow us to invest in developing our services, including:

The range of free-to-use content and interactive guidance to explain planning, from permitted development on common projects through to applying for planning permission for homeowners and others
Free-to-use technical and legislative content for planning and building professionals
A dedicated customer support team available 9am – 5pm to support customers
The planning application service itself, including increasing the maximum file size of supporting documents, e-enabling further application types and improvements to local validation amongst many others.

Consolidated Impact Assessments

Title of Policy – Planning Performance and Fees

Lead Minister – Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning

Lead Official – Chris Sinclair

Directorate – Local Government and Communities

Division – Planning and Architecture Division

Team – Development Delivery

Brief Summary – The consultation paper looks at reforming how the performance of the planning system is measured and the role of the National Planning Improvement Co-ordinator. The Consultation also seeks views on revising the Planning Fee regime, to better reflect the nature and scale of development now coming forward, with revisions and additions to the categories of developments and how the fees are calculated. The consultation in some circumstances increases the maximum planning fee to £150,000 and the per unit fee. The consultation paper also seeks views on the introduction of charges for discretionary services such as pre-application discussions, enhanced project managed applications, increased fees for retrospective applications and waiving or reducing planning fees.

Consultation

Internal

In light of the independent review of planning in 2016 and also the consultation Places, People and Planning on the future of the Scottish planning system carried out between January and April 2017, the Scottish Government has worked with key stakeholders through a series of working groups to consider a wide range of planning issues including resourcing and fees.

Scottish Government colleagues in other policy areas such as housing, energy and marine fish farming were also consulted about the proposals.

External

In 2017 we published the Places, People and Planning Consultation which included some initial thoughts about planning fees and performance which influenced our approach to the provisions within the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019.

In October 2019 a number of workshops were held with over 50 attendees, representing a wide range of sectors, to discuss the topics of planning performance and planning fees. This early engagement has assisted in the preparation of the consultation paper. Identifying current issues which should be consulted on and providing helpful insight into how planning fees are currently implemented.

This consultation now looks to take these views forward. The consultation will be held over 2 months from December to February in which stakeholders will be invited to make their views known on our proposals.

Options

Do nothing

The planning fee structure is over 25 years old and no longer reflects the nature and scale of developments which are now being brought forward. The review of planning recommended that planning fees should be substantially increased towards full cost recovery. In 2017 we increased the maximum planning fee to £125,000. Although some authorities saw a significant increase in their income this was not universal across the country with 2 authorities identifying no increased income.

Doing nothing would result in a continuing gap in resources between the income received from planning applications and the costs of processing and making decisions.

Proposed Approach

Our proposed approach sees the basic planning fee increased by 50% in many cases with the maximum fee increased further to £150,000. The consultation also proposes bringing into line the unit of calculation for area based developments to either m² or per 0.1 hectare.

Sectors and Groups Affected

The sectors most likely to be affected by the proposals are:

Planning authorities that are required to resource their development management service.
- Given the nature and scale of developments which are brought forward the impact of the fee increases will have different impacts for urban, rural and island authorities.
- We will continue to work with Heads of Planning Scotland to assess the impact of the changes to the fee structure and levels.
All those who submit planning applications.

Benefits

The fee increase proposed is intended to provide increased resources to planning authorities to help support ongoing performance improvement which should benefit applicants by providing improved customer service.

Costs

The proposed changes involve in most cases the increase in the fee payable for applying for planning permission. At this time due to the creation of new categories and method of calculation there is a variation in the increases across different types of development. The variations include reductions in some levels and substantial increases in percentage terms in others. Research has shown that on average planning fees only cover 63% of the cost of processing an application which shows that Local Authorities are subsidising the planning application process. The increases will take us some way towards fully recovering these costs however, because the structure of fees is changing it has not been possible to model the potential impact of these increases with regards to cost recovery. Although due to the gap between fee income and cost of processing the application it is considered that the increase will not lead to authorities profiting from application income. The consultation also proposes the introduction fees for additional services provided by the planning authority. These fees are also intended to be based on the principle of cost recovery and are not pitched at a level which would lead to authorities profiting from their collection and ultimately subsidising other authority services.

Equality and Childrens Rights Assessment – During the passage of the Planning Bill, draft assessments (EQIA and CRWIA) were published in advance of Stage 3 (June 2019). These assessments do not provide any direct evidence on matters pertaining to performance or fees. In developing our proposals, the public sector equality duty requires the Scottish Government to pay due regard to the need to:

eliminate discrimination, victimisation, harassment or other unlawful conduct that is prohibited under the Equality Act 2010;
advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not; and
foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic.

The aim of the Scottish Government is to use this consultation process as a means to explore fully any potential equality impacts. Comments received will be used to determine if any further work in this area is needed, including full assessments.

Environmental Assessment – The Planning Performance and Fee Regimes are not intended to be used to promote or discourage certain types of development. Planning Fees should only seek to recover the cost of the service being provided whether that be pre-application discussions or the processing of an application. Therefore we do not envisage the proposed changes having any direct environmental impacts. With regards to indirect impacts it is not clear what these impacts could be at this time. However, changes to planning fees does not remove the need for applying for permission and any proposed developments will still be subject to the planning process.

Scottish Firms Impact Test

As part of the consultation process on fees, the independent review of planning which reported in 2016 and Places, People and Planning a consultation on the future of the Scottish planning system carried out between January and April 2017, we have consulted with a range of businesses to understand the direct impacts of this change to legislation on their business.

Competition Assessment

The proposals are not expected to impact significantly more on some firms than others nor restrict new entrants to the market. The need to produce detailed plans is not impacted by these changes.

We consider that the freedom of firms to choose the price, quality range or location of their products will be unaffected.

Consumer Assessment

The proposals are not intended to impact one set of consumers over another. Although, there may be circumstances whereby an authority in one area charges for a service which may be free in another, we would expect that both services should meet the needs and expectations of the customer. It will be up to the authorities in question to decide whether they implement some particular charges to support the delivery of their planning service.

We consider that the proposals will support the delivery of improved services to applicants.

Digital Impact Test

The consultation seeks views on the introduction of charges for applications submitted both digitally and in the more traditional paper method. The charge for the traditional method of submission is intended to reflect the increased cost to authorities in resources of having to upload paper copies into the online planning portal to make available to the public. Introducing the fee for submitting an application through ePlanning is to help fund ongoing maintenance and future development of the ePlanning service.

The practical implementation of any fee will be carefully considered to avoid any adverse impacts.

Legal Aid Impact Test

As far as we are aware these proposals have no impact in relation to Legal Aid, as the policy does not introduce any new procedures or right of appeal to a court or tribunal.

Enforcement, Sanctions and Monitoring

An application for planning permission is not valid unless the appropriate fee has been paid. Where the fee is incorrect or missing the planning authority can turn the application away.

Where a developer considers they have paid the correct fee but this is disputed by the planning authority then they can seek either a local review or appeal against non-determination.

As the consultation notes, fee income and planning authority performance are inextricably linked. With an increase in resources through fee income Ministers expect to see an increase in performance and service delivery. As part of this planning authorities will be monitored and assessed against the Annual Reports which they are now to prepare on a statutory basis. The content of these reports is part of this consultation.

Implementation and Delivery Plan

It is anticipated that the amendments to fees will be laid before the Scottish Parliament in April 2020 and will come into force in June 2020

Summary and Recommendation

It is recommended that these regulations are implemented to help ensure that the planning fees regime becomes more proportionate, fit for purpose and accurately reflects the developments coming forward in modern Scotland. We expect all Planning authorities will see an increase in resources regardless of the different profile of developments which are brought forward in their areas. There will be an impact on developers' costs with such an increase but there is an expectation that any increase in resources will see an increase in performance level from authorities and the service they provide to people and businesses.

Sign off for Impact Assessments

I have read the consolidated impact assessment and I am satisfied that, given the available evidence, it represents, a reasonable view of the likely costs, benefits and impacts of the of the leading options I am satisfied that the impacts have been assessed with the support of businesses and other stakeholders in Scotland.

Signed

Date

Do you have any comments on the BRIA?

Do you agree with our conclusion that a full EQIA is not required?