§ Mr. Harry GreenwayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has any plans to revise the regulations governing fees for planning applications.
§ Mr. YeoMy right hon. Friend has today issued a consultation paper seeking views on several proposals to amend the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications and Deemed Applications) Regulations 1989 (as amended). The paper covers three categories of proposal:
- (a) amendments to the regulations which the Government undertook to make during the passage through Parliament of the Planning and Compensation Bill. These would remove the present 75 per cent. fee concession for a planning application which duplicates another submitted by the same applicant, and would double the fee for the deemed application which may accompany an enforcement appeal;
- (b) small amendments to resolve practical difficulties which have come to light in operating the present regulations; and
- (c) an invitation to consultees to suggest ways in which the present regulations might be
278 simplified, possibly by restricting the scope of some of the existing concessions and exemptions from the fees. The paper also refers to the Government's intention to propose a general increase in application fees. The requisite regulations would be laid before Parliament in the autumn and, if approved, could come into effect in January 1992.
Separate but parallel consultation is being carried out by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.