Since I wrote my article on the Government’s proposals to reform the planning application fee system, so that local authorities can set their planning fees, an interesting development has come to light.
Robert Davis, the Deputy Leader of Westminster City Council, has written a letter to the Decentralisation Minister, Greg Clark, calling on the Government to allow local authorities to charge for listed buildings applications. Seven other local authorities from across the UK are signatories to the letter.
The eight local authorities (which have the largest number of listed buildings in the UK) are concerned that the Government’s proposals will exclude the charging of fees for listed building and conservation area consents – areas which they argue require a lot of expertise and take the most time to handle due to their complexity. Faced with having to make significant savings over the next few years, the local authorities have warned that unless they are able to recover their costs from handling such complex planning applications, they may have to make cuts to the historic building maintenance services.
Westminster City Council has claimed that their campaign has won the backing of many leading figures in the property industry, and that developers have said they are willing to pay more money to ensure their developments are not jeopardised by cuts to the planning service and skills shortages.