Scope of Development Management charging - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

There are lots of examples of charging monitoring fees in s.106 agreements for the cost of monitoring the agreement. I think you'd need legal advice before trying to charge for enforcement of e.g. conditions. But as a lawyer I would say that.

Thank you - I am aware that some authorities may charge for providing letters confirming that conditions have been complied with in respect of development which may be helpful at the point of sale of a propert or completion of a development to assist with solicitors enquiries.

The whole topic of cost recovery for planning is quite hot right now and the Local Government Groups recent submission to the Government on the Spending Review (http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/aio/13759861 ) makes it pretty clear that local government want to see more flexibility to generate income from fees and charges, or at very least cover costs. So considering how planning service costs, including enforcement , could be covered is very much the way the wind is blowing. As part of the work PAS has done on development management, we looked at trying to re-orientate at least a proportion of enforcement work to compliance . The basis is that with large developments, there wasa mutual interest in preventing enforcement by more active support from the Council (DM and BC) in ensuring that conditions are satisfied early preventing holdups in the building programme. The mechanism suggested was to have compliance discussed during the pre-apps pase - as part of a PPA if appropriate - and then an item for compliance included in the S106 which linked the payment to the provision of agreed support over and above the simple discharge of conditions for which a fee is already charged by most LAs. This provision would be modelled on the s106 monitoring charge that many authorities use now. I have not heard of whether this approach has been taken up in any authorities, but would be interested to hear more. Phillipa

Given the likely introduction of local fee setting for applications sooner or later, it would be interesting to explore the possibility of a local enforcement levy that would be added to the fee for a planning application. This would be on the basis that the development industry and the local community (as a whole) are responsible for breaches of planning control and it is reasonable for the cost of investigating suspected breaches of planning control to be spread across all applicants on a fair/proportionate basis. However this would be a matter of local choice for LAs depending on their spending priorities. If adopted it would be necessary to balance service quality with value for money, and where an enforcement case arises from a complaint by a member of the public, the complainant would be required to state the harm they believe is caused by the development rather than simply complaining because they suspect something might not have planning permission/advert consent etc. Higher fees could apply for retrospective applications to encourage pre-development applications and to reduce enforcement workload.

[quote=Ian Kilby]In bringing forward proposals for pre-application charging I am interested to learn of any cases where LPA's have introduced charges for other parts of the process such as compliance/enforcement? Are there examples where the cost of these processes which have recovered?[/quote]

We typically charge £80 for this service, but based on an average hourly cost of £50 an hour and use bespoke charges to suit the case.

[quote=Ian Kilby]In bringing forward proposals for pre-application charging I am interested to learn of any cases where LPA's have introduced charges for other parts of the process such as compliance/enforcement? Are there examples where the cost of these processes which have recovered?[/quote]

We typically charge £80 for this service, but based on an average hourly cost of £50 an hour and use bespoke charges to suit the case.

 

Just to note, Graham, that we will be publishing another pre-application advice note before xmas. It includes a couple of sections on how to define the various pre-app offers and how to understand their costs.