Ask what planning permission costs and you’ll usually be quoted one number — the council’s application fee. It’s real, it’s on every council website, and it is almost never the answer to the question you were actually asking. The fee is a line on the budget. The budget is what this article is about.
England, From April 2026
Set nationally and index-linked — each April the schedule moves with inflation.
Householder application
Enlarging or altering one house, whatever the size of the scheme.
Works within a boundary
Gates, fences, walls and ancillary outbuildings.
New homes, up to nine
Full applications for small residential schemes.
Discharge of conditions
Householder / other developments, per request.
Remove or vary a condition
Householder / other developments, Section 73 route.
Prior approval notification
The larger home extension route, and similar notifications.
Statutory planning fees carry no VAT. If submitted through the Planning Portal, also budget for its separate service charge of £75.83 plus VAT per application. The fee purchases a decision, not a permission — there is no refund for a no.
Comparing quotes and can’t tell what’s included?
Our proposals are itemised and fixed — survey, drawings, application, reports only where triggered, discharge at the end — so every row is named before a pound is spent.
One Spreadsheet, Told Honestly
A couple budgeting a wraparound extension find the council’s £548 is comfortably the smallest professional line.
Council application fee
Paid when the application is submitted — £548 for a typical householder scheme.
Design and drawings
The largest professional line, and the one that defines what the council actually approves.
Specialist reports
Only when a site constraint triggers it — a tree, heritage, flood or ecology survey.
Small-print costs
Pre-application advice, map extracts and condition-discharge fees at the end.
The point isn’t that planning is expensive — it’s that the fee was never the price.
Been told to commission a stack of reports?
We check your council’s trigger list before anything is ordered, cut the reports your scheme doesn’t need, and time the seasonal ones so they never stall the application.
Some Applications Cost Nothing
Listed building consent carries no fee.
Works to provide access or facilities for a disabled person’s home.
Works to protected trees are applied for free.
Lodging a planning appeal costs nothing.
Refusal, Appeal, Retrospective
Every cost so far assumed things go to plan. The expensive spreadsheet is the other one: a refusal that sends the design back to the start with a fresh full-price fee on the way back in; an appeal that’s free to lodge and costly to argue; or the priciest row in all of planning — building first and applying later.
The cheapest planning money you will ever spend is whatever it takes to be right the first time.
Facing a second attempt after a refusal?
We read the refusal reasons, redesign to answer them rather than argue with them, and price the resubmission route honestly against an appeal before you spend again.
Where the Money Works
- 01 Put the surplus into drawings and design — the only line the council actually approves.
- 02 Buy pre-application advice where a scheme is sensitive or unusual.
- 03 Commission exactly the reports the validation list triggers — no fewer, no more.
- 04 Time survey-season work, bats especially, before it times you.
- 05 Budget discharge fees and small rows at the start, not as surprises at the end.
- 06 Treat the application fee as non-refundable risk capital — and manage the risk, not the fee.
Planning Cost FAQs
Select a question to reveal the answer.
How much does planning permission cost for an extension?
The council fee for a householder application in England is £548, flat regardless of size. The realistic budget adds design and drawings, any triggered reports and end-of-process discharge fees.
Do I get my fee back if the application is refused?
No — the fee pays for the council to decide, whichever way. The statutory delay-refund point is 16 weeks for non-major applications and 26 weeks for major applications.
Is there VAT on planning fees?
Not on the council's statutory fee. Professional services around the application — designers, planning consultants and surveyors — normally add VAT at the standard rate.
Are planning fees the same at every council?
In England, yes for now — the schedule is set nationally, though a government consultation proposes allowing local variation. Wales prices its planning system separately.
How much does it cost to discharge planning conditions?
£89 per request for householder approvals and £309 for other development — per request, so grouping conditions into a single submission saves money and administration.
What does a Lawful Development Certificate for an existing use cost?
Certifying something already built or in use costs the full fee that a planning application for it would carry — double the proposed-use certificate.
Why did the fees go up this year?
English planning fees are now index-linked: each April the whole schedule rises with inflation, with a 3.8% uplift this year.
Are any planning applications free?
Yes: listed building consent, works to protected trees, and disabled access or facilities all carry no fee, and lodging an appeal is free. “No fee” never means “no application”.
What's the cheapest way through the planning system?
Not needing it — a scheme designed inside permitted development pays no application fee at all. Where an application is unavoidable, the economy lies in preparation.
How much should I budget in total for a householder application?
As a working shape: the £548 fee, a design package that exceeds it several times over, a few hundred to four figures per triggered report, and the small rows — landing in the low-to-mid four figures.
Three Layers, Budgeted Honestly
Planning costs come in three layers. The official one is a national, index-linked, VAT-free price list that buys a decision and refunds only lateness. The professional layer is the real bill: design and drawings that dwarf the fee and deserve to, reports commissioned strictly by trigger, and small rows that add up quietly.
The third layer is conditional — refusals, appeals and retrospective regularisation — payable only by those who economised on the first two. Budget all three honestly and the fee becomes what it always was: the cheapest line on the sheet.