The current fee is tied to the correct category
Do not apply the £548 figure to every job at a residential address. The fee for qualifying ancillary operations within an existing dwellinghouse's curtilage, or boundary gates, fences and walls, is £272 from 1 April 2026. An alteration to a flat, a new dwelling or a change of use must be checked against its own fee category. [1]
For applications assessed by floorspace, site area or dwelling numbers, the relevant measurements and fee bands matter. Mixed proposals and concessions can also affect the calculation. Use the current national table and application guidance rather than estimating the fee from the size of a builder's quote. [1][2]
The submission fee is not the total planning budget
Separate the statutory application fee from professional work and any additional submission-service charge. The council fee does not buy survey work, design drawings or specialist reports. Pre-application advice is also a distinct service with its own published charging arrangements. [2][3]
For budgeting, request separate entries for the application fee, submission administration, drawings and any required reports. Identify which amounts are fixed and which depend on the final application scope. Ask the appointed designer to identify what their fee includes and what will be invoiced separately.
Changes, resubmissions and later approvals
A revised application after a refusal or withdrawal should not be assumed to be free. The previous national “free go” concession was removed from 6 December 2023, subject to the transitional rules relevant at the time. Ealing's fee guidance explains the change. [4]
Likewise, later applications to approve details or amend a permission may have their own fees. Before agreeing a redesign, ask which new application is required and check its charge. This prevents a quotation for the first submission being mistaken for an unlimited allowance for later applications. [2]
Fee changes and submission dates
The annual indexation mechanism provides for fees to be adjusted on 1 April. The next scheduled annual adjustment is therefore 1 April 2027. Recheck the applicable national table before a 2027 submission rather than assuming the 2026 amounts will remain unchanged. [5]
The government also announced a further fee-reform package, with a draft Parliamentary instrument identifying 8 December 2026. Treat that date as proposed for budgeting purposes, not as an already verified new tariff. Check the final approved regulations before relying on replacement charges or changing a submission budget. [6][7]
Recheck the charge immediately before submission, particularly where the design, application type or submission date has changed.