Hugo Swire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugo Swire on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to change the proportion of the cost of retrospective planning applications currently paid by developers.

Gavin Barwell

A nationally set fee is payable where a retrospective planning application is submitted to regularise a breach of planning control, to support the council with the costs of determining the application. We are clear that unauthorised development is unacceptable and unfair to the majority who abide by the rules. However, the retrospective planning application process is there to give those who have made a genuine mistake the opportunity to rectify the situation. We have no plans to review the way fees are calculated for retrospective applications at this point.