§ Lord Brougham and Vauxasked Her Majesty's Government:
What decision they have reached on proposals to allow local planning authorities to set their own planning application fees.
§ Viscount UllswaterLast summer we issued a consultation paper,Planning Application Fees, which proposed giving local planning authorities the power to set their own fees for determining planning applications. Our intention was to enable authorities to recover the costs they incur in processing planning applications. We envisaged that fee increases would be subject to authorities meeting qualifying criteria—in relation to development plans and development control performance—and establishing, by 1996, an accounting system for identifying costs.
We received over 300 responses, all of which have been carefully considered. We have concluded that the particular package of proposals we put forward did not attract sufficient support to justify legislating now for the devolution of fee-setting responsibilities within the proposed timescale.
For the present, therefore, planning application fees will continue to be set centrally. However, we shall be giving further thought to refining the fees regime to see whether a better match can be achieved between the costs and price of the service provided by local planning authorities.