The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 have been approved and made on 8th November 2023. These regulations include the introduction of a 25% increase in planning application fees (35% increase on major applications). This enables Local Planning Authorities to apply the fee increase from 6 December 2023. Ipswich Borough Council has now implemented this increase.
These Regulations also introduced:
• An annual indexation of planning applications fees, capped at 10%, from 1 April 2025.
• Remove the fee exemption for repeat applications (the ‘free-go’). An applicant will still be able to benefit from a free-go if their application was withdrawn or refused in the preceding 12 months (before 6 December 2023), subject to all other conditions for the free-go being met.
• Reduce the Planning Guarantee for non-major planning applications from 26 to 16 weeks.
• Introduced a new prior approval fee of £120 for applications for prior approval for development by the Crown on closed defence sites.
We provide advice to help you improve your planning application, increasing the chance of your application being granted planning permission.
If applicants use the Ipswich Borough Council pre-application advice service, the Council will undertake certain internal and external consultations and report responses received to the applicant. Consultations exclude the Environment Agency, as it is a charged service, but include Suffolk County Council as Lead Local Flood Authority. Therefore, applicants would still need to seek advice directly from the Environment Agency. The Council aims to provide a written response within six weeks.
Pre-application fees also apply to prospective applicants/agents seeking informal pre-application planning advice.
The service level agreement states: