According to a poll, commissioned by the British Property Federation, 61% of MPs "broadly agree that [planning] fees should increase". 47% thought that the fees should increase with stronger guarantees.
Planning fees must be paid when planning applications are made to local planning authorities. The fees reflect the work that planners must carry out when considering an application for planning permission, and are varying in range. For example, an application to alter a house could cost £172 (£190 in Wales). But a developer wanting full planning permission for a housing development consisting of 50 or fewer houses could have to pay £385 (£380 in Wales) for each house (which could be over £19,000 depending on the number of houses) or, if there are more than 50 houses, the fee starts at £19,049 (£19,000 in Wales) on an increasing scale.
An increase in fees though could help local planning authorities which are suffering from a lack of resources.
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: "The public and private sectors have both been very clear about the need for more resourcing in local authority planning departments, and we now know that there is political understanding of this issue as well."
"Some local authority planning departments are simply short-staffed, putting those who remain under enormous strain. Outsourcing the processing of planning applications is likely to relieve this burden to an extent, but it is not going to solve the chronic shortage of skills and resource that is the true problem".
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