Planning circular 1/2026: planning fees for applications, local reviews and appeals

Part A — Shared Definitions, Exemptions, Reductions and Calculation Rules

The principles set out below apply to how fees for applications, local reviews and appeals are calculated.

Where the term 'planning application' is used in this circular, this covers applications for planning permission, planning permission in principle and approval of matters specified in conditions on a planning permission in principle.

A.1 Site area and floor space

Wherever a fee is based on the site area, the site area is defined as the area to which the application relates; that is to say, the land being developed including any which would change its use as part of the development. This will normally be shown edged in red on the plan accompanying the application.

Wherever a fee is based on floor space, the floor space is taken to be the gross floor space (all storeys) to be created by the development shown in the application. For fee purposes, this measurement is an external measurement and includes the thickness of external and internal walls. Floor space does not include areas inside a building which are not readily usable by humans or animals, e.g. lift shafts, tanks and loft spaces.

Where buildings featuring or comprising canopies are concerned, there is no simple rule as to whether floor space is being created by the erection of the canopy, but the absence of external walls is not the determining factor. Petrol filling station canopies are, for example, unlikely to create floor space, but a Dutch barn or other covered storage area would do.

Where floor space or site area (as the case may be) is not an exact multiple of the unit of measurement provided by the fees scale, the amount remaining is taken to be a whole unit for fees purposes.

The fee is always determined on the basis of the application, local review or appeal as made. Even if permission is granted for a development of a different size, or if the application is amended by agreement in the course of discussion with the applicant, no adjustment is made to the fee payable.

A.2 Buildings on the site of demolished buildings

If an applicant/appellant intends to demolish an existing building and to rebuild on the same site, the fee payable will be based on the area of the new building. If, for example, demolition of a factory with 1,000 sqm of floor space was proposed and a new one with a floor space of 2,000 sqm was to be erected in its place, the fee payable would be for the total floor space created by the development i.e. 2,000 sqm.

A.3 Dwellinghouses

The Regulations define "dwellinghouse" for fees purposes as "a building or part of a building which is used as a single private dwellinghouse, and for no other purpose". This differs from the definition in the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) (General Permitted Development) Order 1992 (‘the GPDO’) and includes a flat.

Fee calculations can be affected:

• by whether existing accommodation involved in a proposal already amounts to a dwellinghouse, and
• by whether accommodation to be created (e.g. by erection or change of use) will amount to a dwellinghouse.

For the purposes of calculating the fee, “dwellinghouse” does not cover caravans or anything else which is not a building.

A.4 Means of Access for Disabled Persons

Applications, local reviews or appeals for planning permission to alter or extend an existing dwellinghouse, or to carry out operations within the curtilage of an existing dwellinghouse, are exempt from payment of a fee if the planning authority is satisfied that the proposed development is intended solely to improve access, safety, health or comfort for a disabled person who is living in the house. This also applies to cases where the disabled person is not yet in residence. The exemption does not apply to the construction of a new dwellinghouse. Applications for operations in connection with a building to which the public have access are also exempt from payment of a fee if the planning authority is satisfied that the proposed development is to provide means of access to or within the building for disabled persons. The exemption is not confined to those buildings where there is a statutory obligation to provide such access.

A.5 Where rights under the GPDO or Use Classes Order have been removed

Where an application is required to be made only because the right to carry out development permitted by the GPDO has been removed by a condition attached to a planning permission, that application (and any associated local review or appeal) is exempt from fees. Similarly, applications required only because the right to make a change of use within a class of the Use Classes Order has been removed by a condition are exempt.

A.6 Playing fields

Applications, appeals or local reviews made by not for profit clubs, or other not-for-profit sporting or recreational organisations, relating to applications for playing fields or other related operations for their own use are charged a flat rate fee. The fee applies to applications including for the change of use to use as playing fields together with associated operations (such as earth-moving, draining or levelling) but does not extend to the erection of buildings containing floor space.

• Applications - £742
• Local Reviews and Appeals - £297

A.7 Community councils

There is a reduced fee for applications, local reviews or appeals made by or on behalf of community councils. The fee is half of whatever would be the normal fee in question.

A.8 Article 4 Directions

Where a planning application is required to be made only because a direction under Article 4 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992 (“the GPDO”) has removed permitted development rights, the application (and any associated local review or appeal) is exempt from fees. The GPDO grants planning permission for specified types of development, meaning they can be carried out without a planning application having to be submitted to, and approved by, the planning authority. These national grants of planning permission are sometimes referred to as permitted development rights (PDRs). An Article 4 Direction removes PDRs for particular types of development within the area covered by the Direction.

A.9 Conservation areas

If an application, local review or appeal relates only to alterations to, or works within the curtilage of, a dwellinghouse in a conservation area (and does not include extending or erecting a dwellinghouse) and the proposal would have been permitted development under the GPDO were it not for the conservation area designation, the required fee is reduced by 25%.

A.10 Mixed category applications

Except in the cases described in the two paragraphs below, where an application, local review or appeal relates to development which is in more than one category only the higher or highest of the fees calculated in respect of each of the categories is charged.

Where an application, local review or appeal relates to development which proposes both the erection of dwellings within category 1 and non-residential buildings within category 4, the fee is calculated by adding together the fee appropriate for each development. This applies whether the two types are combined or in separate buildings. For applications for planning permission in principle, the fee can simply be derived from the total site area. Where a mixed use building includes common service floor space areas (e.g. foyers) serving both the residential and other parts of the building, these areas are divided pro-rata to the floor space of each type of development, and the non-residential portion of common floor space is added to the area of the non-residential floor space in the building for the purpose of calculating the fees.

Where an application, local review or appeal relates to development within both categories 1 and 4 (as above) and also within one or more of any other category, an amount is to be calculated in accordance with each such other category. If any of the amounts so calculated exceeds that calculated as described in the previous paragraph, the higher or highest amount is the fee payable in respect of all of the development to which the application, appeal or local review relates.