Planning Application Fees in Scotland

At present, planning application fees in Scotland are much lower than elsewhere. This is set to change, however, with the Scottish Government’s recent paper in relation to this and from the flavour of the responses to the consultation released today. A quick review of the councils who responded indicates that all of them consider that fees should increase with those prepared to include a figure suggesting that they be made the same as in England, with a maximum of £250,000, although at least some of them accept that this should be done over a number of years rather than immediately. The private sector responses are split on the issue, but there does seem to be an acceptance that fees will need to go up albeit marginally.
We will have to wait and see what the Government decides to do, but there is no doubt that fees will increase next year and its only a case of by how much.