Housebuilders face £818-a-home planning fee as England's national increases land on 8 December

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has published the schedule of national planning fee increases that take effect in England on 8 December 2026, setting a full application fee of £818 a home for larger housing schemes.

The department added the schedule to its planning application fees guidance page on 10 November 2026. The page had last been updated on 27 February 2026 with the annual indexation figures for 1 April 2026.

The increases flow from the government's consultation on fees for planning applications, which ran for eight weeks from 23 March to 18 May 2026 and drew 173 responses from public and private sector stakeholders and members of the public. In its response, the government confirmed it would set up a new National Default Fee Schedule by raising all planning fees to an estimated 90% cost recovery.

The new housing fees

The draft Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2026, published on legislation.gov.uk, set out the figures housebuilders will pay.

A full application for fewer than 10 new homes will cost £752 a home. For larger schemes the fee is £818 a home for the first 49 homes and £236 for each home above 49, up to a maximum of £513,512. The consultation document put the rise in the maximum fee at about 25%, from £427,537 as indexed from 1 April 2026.

The government response said the reforms also remove baseline fees and move the residential threshold from 50 to 49 dwellings.

Outline applications for housing will cost £719 for each 0.1 hectare on sites under 0.5 hectares and £896 for each 0.1 hectare on sites of 0.5 to 2.5 hectares. The maximum fee for an outline housing application will be £290,625. Applications for permission in principle will attract a flat fee of £825.

Change of use to fewer than 10 homes will cost £700 a home, rising to £799 a home for 10 to 49 homes. Householder applications will cost £575 for a single home and £1,130 where two or more homes are involved.

Application type	Fee per home (£)
Full, fewer than 10 homes	752
Full, first 49 homes	818
Full, each home above 49	236
Change of use, fewer than 10 homes	700
Change of use, 10 to 49 homes	799

The explanatory note to the regulations says they increase every existing fee payable to local planning authorities under the 2012 fee regulations, adjust fee thresholds for certain housing-related applications, and introduce a fee for prior approval applications under the General Permitted Development Order that currently attract none.

Why the government is raising fees

MHCLG said in its consultation that a survey found no planning fee fully covered the cost of determining an application, with shortfalls ranging from 18% for the least underpriced to 60% for the most underpriced. It estimated the annual shortfall in fee income at around £330m in 2024/25.

The department said it was not proposing full cost recovery for two reasons, one being that fees could end up exceeding actual costs for some authorities. It also said setting fees at 90% gave local planning authorities an incentive to keep improving services and cutting costs.

Status and timing

The GOV.UK guidance page presents the schedule as national increases taking effect from 8 December 2026, and the draft regulations state that they come into force on that date. The legislation.gov.uk record, however, still describes the instrument as a draft that has not yet been made as a UK Statutory Instrument.

The regulations carry a transitional provision that defines the commencement date as the day they come into force. A full regulatory impact assessment is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum on legislation.gov.uk.

Planning fees in England are indexed each 1 April in line with Consumer Prices Index inflation from the preceding September. The explanatory note confirms that annual indexation will apply to the newly increased amounts from 1 April 2027.