Guide to Planning Permission Cost UK 2026

When people ask "how much does planning permission cost?", they're usually thinking about the application fee. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. A simple house extension might only set you back a few hundred pounds in council fees, but for a new housing development, the true cost can easily spiral into the tens or even hundreds of thousands.

The True Cost of UK Planning Permission

Budgeting for planning is a bit like buying a car. You see the sticker price for the base model, but the real cost comes from the engine upgrade, the premium features, and the road tax. In the same way, the total cost of getting a planning consent is a combination of three distinct, equally important parts.

First up are the statutory government fees. This is the straightforward part, the fixed price you pay your local planning authority just to get your application in the door. The government sets these fees, and the amount depends entirely on what you’re trying to build and how big it is.

Next, and often the biggest chunk of your budget, are the professional consultant fees. You can't get permission for anything more complex than a garden shed without a team of experts. We're talking architects, planning consultants, and often specialists to handle reports on everything from transport and ecology to heritage and trees. Their job is to build a rock solid case for your project, and their expertise is what gets you over the line.

Here’s a look at how these pieces fit together.

As you can see, the final bill is a sum of all three parts, not just that initial fee.

Finally, for any scheme of a decent size, you'll have developer obligations. These come in two flavours: the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 (S106) agreements. Think of these as financial contributions you make to the council to help them pay for the new schools, roads, or affordable housing needed to support your development.

A critical mistake is underestimating the cost of your professional team. A well prepared application, backed by robust technical reports, isn't an expense, it's an investment. It’s what de-risks the entire process and saves you from costly delays or a flat out refusal down the line.

Getting your head around this three part cost structure is the first step to building a project budget that won’t fall apart. It's the kind of fundamental knowledge that developers, lenders, and investors need to model a scheme’s viability with any real confidence. You can explore how we use detailed planning intelligence to strengthen financial appraisals in our other guides.

High Level Summary of Planning Permission Costs

To give you a clearer picture, here’s a quick snapshot of the key cost components you can expect to encounter, broken down by project scale.

Cost Component	Typical Range (Single Dwelling)	Typical Range (10+ Units)
Local Authority Application Fees	£462 – £924	£4,620+ (scaled by unit count)
Architectural & Design Fees	£3,000 – £15,000	£50,000 – £250,000+
Planning Consultant Fees	£2,000 – £8,000	£15,000 – £100,000+
Specialist Surveys & Reports	£1,500 – £10,000	£20,000 – £150,000+
CIL / S106 Contributions	£0 – £20,000 (often exempt)	£100,000 – £1,000,000+
TOTAL ESTIMATED COST	£7,000 – £50,000+	£190,000 – £1,500,000+

Remember, these are ballpark figures. The final costs will always hinge on the specifics of your site, the complexity of the scheme, and the requirements of your local authority.

The Council's Cut: Nailing Down Your Application Fee

First things first: the planning application fee. This is the one part of your budget that’s completely predictable. It’s a statutory, non negotiable cost paid directly to your local council, and unlike every other professional fee, the amounts are set in stone by the UK government. Think of it as the price of admission, the cost to get your plans officially on a planner’s desk.

These fees aren't just pulled out of a hat. They’re calculated from a national schedule that scales with the size and complexity of your project. A homeowner’s extension is a light touch for the council’s planning department, while a major housing scheme is a massive undertaking. The fee structure simply reflects that reality.

From Extensions to New Builds

For most homeowners, you’ll be dealing with what’s called a householder application. This is the catch all for projects like extensions, loft conversions, or popping a new garage in the garden.

Right now in England, the fee for a standard house extension is £206. If you're doing work on two homes at once, say a pair of semis, that fee doubles to £407.

But here’s a common trip up: building a brand new house isn't a householder application, even if it's just one. That’s a bigger deal, and the fee reflects it.

• Building a single new home? That’ll be £462.
• Building a pair of new homes? You're looking at 2 x £462, which comes to £924.

These numbers give you a solid, reliable starting point. It’s the absolute minimum cost you'll incur just to get the process rolling.

Scaling Up: Fees for Major Developments

Once you’re in the territory of multi unit residential schemes, the maths changes. The fee is pegged to the number of homes you're proposing, and this is where the planning permission cost uk developers need to model carefully really starts to climb.

The rule is £462 per dwelling, but only up to 50 units. Go past that, and a different formula kicks in.

For schemes over 50 homes, the fee jumps to a base of £22,859, plus an extra £138 for every single home over the 50 mark. The whole thing is capped at a maximum of £300,000.

Let's run the numbers on a couple of real world examples.

Scenario 1: A 35 Unit Residential Scheme This one's straightforward. It's under the 50 unit threshold, so the calculation is simple:

• 35 dwellings x £462 per dwelling = £16,170

That fee is due upfront when you submit the application.

Scenario 2: A 70 Unit Residential Scheme Here, we hit the tiered structure. It breaks down like this:

• Base fee for the first 50 units: £22,859
• Add the cost for the remaining 20 units (20 x £138): £2,760
• Total application fee: £25,619

This scaling system makes sense. It’s designed to cover the huge difference in council time and resources needed to scrutinise a large, complex development versus a smaller one.

Don't Forget the Other Consents

It’s crucial to remember your project might need more than just one application. Depending on the site’s specifics, you could be looking at a handful of additional consents, each with its own fee, or sometimes, surprisingly, no fee at all.

Here are a few you’re likely to encounter:

1. Outline Planning Permission: This is your go to for testing the waters. You’re establishing the principle of development before spending a fortune on detailed drawings. The fee is based on the site area, costing £462 for each 0.1 hectare (capped at £120,957).

2. Listed Building Consent: If your project touches a listed building, you’ll need this. The good news? There is no fee for the application itself. The bad news? You will almost certainly be spending that money, and more, on specialist heritage consultants and detailed reports.

3. Advertisement Consent: Want to put up new signs on a commercial property? That’s a separate consent, and the standard fee is £132.

Getting these official fees pinned down early gives you a solid foundation for your viability model. It's the first, most certain number you can plug into your appraisal, the bedrock upon which all the other, more variable costs will be built.

Right, let's talk about the real costs. While the council's application fee is a fixed, predictable line item on your budget, it's barely a drop in the ocean. The true investment, and where a development appraisal can completely fall apart, is in assembling your professional team and commissioning all the necessary technical surveys.

Think of it like this: the fee to file a court case is one thing, but the cost of hiring top tier barristers and expert witnesses to actually win is something else entirely. Your planning application is no different. Its success rides almost entirely on the quality of the team you build and the evidence they produce.

This is where your budget will see the most variation. A simple barn conversion might just need an architect and a structural survey. Manageable. But a complex urban regeneration project on a tight, constrained site? You could be looking at a dozen specialist consultants, sending your pre construction costs through the roof.

Assembling Your Core Professional Team

No matter the scale, every project needs a core team to turn your idea into a planning submission that a local authority can actually approve. These are the non negotiables.

• Architects or Architectural Technologists: These are the people who bring the vision to life. They handle the scheme design, produce the detailed drawings, and make sure everything stacks up against design codes and space standards. You can expect their fees to be either a percentage of the build cost (typically 3-5% for the planning stage) or a fixed sum, ranging anywhere from £3,000 for a single home to well over £50,000 for larger schemes.

• Planning Consultants: These are your strategists. A good one understands the local plan inside out, knows the political dynamics of the planning committee, and can frame the arguments needed to get a recommendation for approval. They'll draft the critical Planning Statement and quarterback the whole application process. Budget anything from £2,000 for a simple case to £100,000+ for a major, contentious application.

Never underestimate the value of a sharp planning consultant. They are often the difference between a smooth approval and a painful, expensive refusal that drags you into the appeals process.

The World of Specialist Surveys and Reports

Beyond the core team, nearly every site has its own quirks and challenges that need specialist investigation. Each of these reports is designed to proactively address a potential reason for the council to say "no".

What you'll need is dictated entirely by your site's location and characteristics, but here are the usual suspects:

• Topographical Survey: Maps the lay of the land, showing all the levels and features. (£500 - £2,500)
• Arboricultural (Tree) Survey: An absolute must if there are trees on or anywhere near the site. (£750 - £3,000)
• Ecology/Bat Survey: Triggered if your site could be a habitat for protected species. This one can be tricky, as surveys are often seasonal and can get expensive. (£1,000 - £5,000+)
• Flood Risk Assessment (FRA): Not optional. It's mandatory if your site is in a designated flood zone. (£1,500 - £7,500)
• Transport Statement: Assesses the scheme's impact on local traffic and access. (£2,000 - £15,000+)
• Heritage Statement: Required for any project that could affect a listed building or a conservation area. (£1,500 - £10,000)

It's a false economy to try and dodge a recommended survey. If the council's ecologist even suspects there might be bats and you haven't provided a report, your application will grind to a halt. It gets delayed or refused, you lose months, and your holding costs start to rack up.

Getting a handle on which reports you're likely to need is vital for building an accurate viability model. And in the UK, the planning system's performance adds another layer of risk. While a solid 88% of the 431,000 decisions made in 2017/18 were approvals, timelines can be a lottery. In 2018, some local authorities like Craven were hitting just 45% of their deadlines, a delay that can seriously inflate holding costs and wreck your project's cash flow. You can find more insights on how planning interacts with finance on MoneySuperMarket.com.

Example Professional Fees for a 5 Unit Residential Scheme

To pull all this together, here’s an illustrative breakdown for a small scale development. We'll assume the site has a few moderate constraints that require a handful of key reports.

Example Professional Fees for a 5 Unit Residential Scheme

Professional Service	Typical Fee Range (£)	Why It's Needed
Architectural Fees	£15,000 - £25,000	To design the five houses and produce all required plans and elevations.
Planning Consultant	£8,000 - £12,000	To prepare the Planning Statement and manage the application strategy.
Topographical Survey	£1,500 - £2,500	To provide accurate site levels for the design and drainage strategy.
Transport Statement	£3,000 - £5,000	To demonstrate the new access is safe and traffic impact is acceptable.
Ecology Survey	£2,000 - £4,000	To assess the site for protected species and propose mitigation.
TOTAL ESTIMATED FEES	£29,500 - £48,500	This represents the likely pre construction professional costs.

As you can see, the professional fees for even a modest scheme can quickly push £50,000, completely dwarfing that initial council application fee. Budgeting for this team correctly isn't just good practice; it's a fundamental step in any successful development appraisal.

CIL vs Section 106: The Developer Contributions You Can't Ignore

Once you’re past the application fees and the consultant invoices, you hit the really big numbers: developer contributions. These aren't optional extras. They are legally binding obligations that can single handedly make or break a project's financial viability.

These payments come in two main flavours: the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 (S106) agreements. Think of CIL as a straightforward, non negotiable council tax on new development. A Section 106 agreement, on the other hand, is more like a bespoke, negotiated contract tailored to your specific site.

Both are designed to make sure your development helps fund the new infrastructure needed to support it. But getting the distinction wrong can blow a multi million pound hole in your appraisal, turning a profitable scheme into a financial disaster overnight.

Getting to Grips with the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

The Community Infrastructure Levy is the simpler of the two. It’s a fixed tariff set by the local council, charged on every square metre of new floorspace you create.

The rate varies wildly. One council might charge £250 per square metre in a prime city centre spot, but only £50 per square metre in a quieter suburb. The rates are all published in the council’s ‘Charging Schedule’.

The key thing to remember about CIL is its inflexibility. The rate is the rate, you can't haggle. It’s a simple calculation based on the new area you're proposing, and you have to bake that exact cost into your financial model from day one.

The money collected from CIL goes into a big pot, which the council then uses to pay for wider infrastructure projects like new schools, road improvements, or public parks.

Navigating the World of Section 106 Agreements

Section 106 (S106) agreements are a completely different animal. Unlike the fixed CIL tariff, S106 obligations are thrashed out directly between you and the council to deal with the specific impacts of your development.

These legally binding contracts are used to secure contributions that make your scheme acceptable in planning terms, often covering things CIL can’t touch.

Common S106 obligations include:

• Affordable Housing: This is the big one. For most residential projects over a certain size (often 10 units), the council will demand a percentage of the new homes are designated as affordable.
• Site Specific Works: This could be anything from funding a new pedestrian crossing or improving a local road junction to contributing cash towards a nearby GP surgery.
• Public Open Space: You might be required to build and maintain a new park, playground, or public square as part of your scheme.

Negotiating an S106 can be a long, complex process, often requiring legal eagles on both sides. The final agreed package directly eats into the scheme's profitability and, ultimately, what a developer can afford to pay for the land.

A Quick Example: A 20 Unit Housing Scheme

Let's see how this works in practice. Imagine you’re proposing a scheme of 20 new houses, creating a total of 2,000 square metres of new residential space.

CIL Calculation: Let’s say the local council’s CIL rate is £150 per square metre for new homes in this area.

• 2,000 sq m x £150/sq m = a £300,000 CIL bill.

Section 106 Obligations: The council’s policy requires 30% affordable housing on schemes of this size.

• 20 units x 30% = 6 affordable housing units.

Those six units will have to be sold to a housing association at a steep discount, taking a huge bite out of the project’s Gross Development Value (GDV). This is a direct, unavoidable cost.

It’s crucial to see the whole picture when appraising a site. For instance, while commercial planning permissions in England have a stable 91% average approval rate (2014-2024), timelines can kill you. London councils met only 67% of their statutory deadlines compared to 84% in the South East. Those extra months add punishing finance costs to your project, a risk that needs to be modelled right alongside CIL and S106. You can find more detail on how these stats affect commercial property decisions at alanboswell.com.

Strategies to Get a Grip on Planning Costs

Knowing the different parts that make up the total planning permission cost is one thing. Actually controlling them is another game entirely. A smart, proactive strategy is often the difference between a project that delivers solid returns and one that gets bogged down in spiralling expenses and delays.

It all comes down to making informed decisions right from the start. Small savings made early on have a knack for preventing huge costs down the line. The goal is simple: minimise financial risk, strengthen your development appraisal, and give lenders the confidence they need to get behind your scheme.

Get Pre Application Advice

Before you even think about lodging a full application, get in touch with the local planning authority. Use their formal pre application advice service. This is, without a doubt, the single most effective cost saving move you can make. It’s your chance to lay out your initial concept for a planning officer and get direct, candid feedback.

This early dialogue helps you spot potential deal breakers, things like highway access problems, heritage concerns, or ecological constraints, long before you've spent tens of thousands on detailed designs and specialist reports. Think of it as a small upfront investment to avoid a costly refusal and a painful appeal process later.

It's a classic mistake to see pre application advice as just another expense. In reality, it’s your most powerful de-risking tool. Fixing one major design flaw at this stage will save you far more in redesign costs and lost time than the advice fee ever cost you.

Nail the First Submission

This might sound counterintuitive, but spending a bit more to submit a comprehensive, high quality application almost always works out cheaper in the long run. A rushed or incomplete submission is just a recipe for delays, endless requests for more information, and, ultimately, a likely refusal.

This means getting all the necessary surveys and reports commissioned upfront. It means making sure your architectural drawings and supporting documents are robust, clear, and persuasive. A strong application shows you're serious and makes it easy for the planning officer to recommend approval. Remember, every revision or appeal cycle adds months to your timeline and thousands in professional fees and holding costs.

With 688,151 applications lodged in the UK in 2025 and an average decision time of around 60 days, a weak submission just puts you at the back of a very long queue. The huge variance in approval rates between councils, from 99% in Richmondshire down to 62% in Enfield, shows just how important it is to build a bulletproof case from day one.

Consider Phasing for Larger Schemes

For major, multi phase projects, submitting separate planning applications for each phase can be a brilliant way to manage your cash flow. Instead of paying one huge application fee and commissioning reports for the entire site at once, you can focus your capital on getting the first phase consented and built.

This approach has some real advantages:

• Reduces Upfront Costs: It breaks a massive financial commitment down into more manageable, bite sized chunks.
• Generates Early Revenue: Getting the first phase built and operational can bring in cash that helps fund the planning costs for the rest of the scheme.
• Allows for Flexibility: You can tweak later phases based on market feedback and the lessons you learned from the initial build out.

By using these strategies, you can stop seeing the planning process as a daunting financial hurdle and start treating it as a manageable part of your project's lifecycle. To see how these cost management techniques fit into a modern workflow, learn more about our dedicated planning intelligence tools.

Bringing Planning Costs into Your Development Appraisal

A solid development appraisal lives and dies on how well you account for every single cost. The full spectrum of planning expenses isn't just a footnote; it's a huge slice of the 'soft costs' that dictate your project's profitability and, ultimately, the maximum price you can afford to pay for the land.

Think of it like this: your land and build costs are the main ingredients in a recipe, but the planning costs are the essential, potent spices. Get the mix wrong, and the whole dish is ruined. Accurately modelling these costs is what turns a hopeful guess into a reliable financial forecast.

From Jumbled Quotes to a Financial Model

In a professional appraisal, every planning cost gets its own line item. You’re moving away from a chaotic mess of quotes and estimates and into a structured, auditable financial model that stands up to scrutiny.

Here’s a simplified look at how these costs flow through the numbers:

1. Start with the Gross Development Value (GDV): This is the total sales value you expect from the finished scheme.
2. Deduct Sales and Finance Costs: Think agent fees, marketing budgets, and the cost of borrowing money to get the project built.
3. Subtract Build Costs: This covers all your construction materials and labour.
4. Input All Planning Costs: Here's where you plug in every single fee we've discussed. From the council application fee and your architect’s invoices to specialist survey costs and your projected CIL payment.
5. Factor in Your Profit: Deduct your required developer's profit margin (e.g., 20% of GDV).

The number you're left with is the Residual Land Value (RLV). This is the absolute maximum you can bid for the site while still hitting your profit target. If your planning cost estimates are too low, your RLV will be artificially high, putting you at serious risk of overpaying for the land.

Stress Testing for Reality

No experienced analyst ever banks on a single, best case scenario. They stress test the model. What happens to our profit margin if the council suddenly demands an unexpected £50,000 for a transport report? What if a planning delay adds three months of finance and holding costs?

By modelling these potential shocks, you can identify your project's financial breaking point. This is where moving away from disconnected spreadsheets provides a huge advantage, as an integrated system allows for instant scenario testing, building a robust, lender ready business case.

This methodical approach is non negotiable. It gives you a clear, auditable workflow that replaces guesswork with data driven confidence. Understanding the pitfalls of outdated methods is key; you can explore this further by reading our guide on the true cost of spreadsheet underwriting. Ultimately, mastering how to integrate the total planning permission cost UK developers face is fundamental to cutting risk and making faster, smarter investment decisions.

Frequently Asked Questions About Planning Costs

When you're trying to budget for a development, the financial side of the planning system can feel like a maze. It often throws up more questions than answers. To help you find your way, I’ve put together some straight answers to the questions I hear most from developers and homeowners about the real planning permission cost UK projects actually face.

Think of this as a quick reference guide. It’s here to give you practical insights and reinforce the key points we've already covered, so you can move forward and budget with more confidence.

Can I Get Planning Permission For Free?

In short, probably not. Nearly every application requires a statutory fee paid directly to the local council. There are, however, a few specific exceptions. An application for Listed Building Consent, for instance, is free of charge.

You also get what’s often called a ‘free go’, your first resubmission of a refused or withdrawn application won’t cost you another application fee, as long as the new scheme is similar and you submit it within 12 months. Of course, some very minor works fall under Permitted Development Rights, which sidestep the need for a formal planning application altogether, saving you that cost from the start.

What Happens To My Fees If My Application Is Refused?

This is the hard truth: if your application is refused, you don't get a refund. The application fee paid to the council and every penny you've spent on architects and consultants is gone. Those are sunk costs.

This is precisely why front loading your investment in a high quality, comprehensive submission is so critical. The real cost of a refusal, in both lost fees and months of project delays, is always far, far greater than the upfront cost of a strong professional team.

After a refusal, your best bet is to either use that one ‘free go’ to submit a revised application that directly addresses the council's concerns, or launch a planning appeal. Just know that an appeal comes with its own set of costs.

How Much Does A Planning Appeal Typically Cost?

The price tag on a planning appeal can vary wildly depending on the route you take and how complex the case is. The most common path, a written representation appeal, is also the most affordable. For this, you should budget between £2,000 and £6,000 for your planning consultant to prepare and manage the submission.

If your case is more complicated and requires an informal hearing or a full public inquiry, the costs can spiral into the tens of thousands. At that point, you’re not just paying your consultant; you’re also footing the bill for barristers and specialist expert witnesses to give evidence.

Are Architect Fees For Planning Separate From Construction Drawings?

Yes, they are almost always treated as separate stages and fees. An architect's work is typically broken down into distinct phases defined by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

The fees for preparing the drawings needed for your planning application cover RIBA Stages 2 and 3. This is a separate invoice from the fees for producing the highly detailed technical and construction drawings (RIBA Stage 4) that are needed for Building Regulations approval and for your contractor to actually build from. Simply put, you pay the first set of fees to get consent, and the second set later on to get the project built.

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At Domus, we unify viability, planning, and finance to help property teams move from site opportunity to investment decision in one workflow. Replace fragmented spreadsheets with a structured platform that models every cost, stress tests scenarios instantly, and generates lender ready evidence packs. Learn more about how Domus accelerates confident capital deployment.

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