From 9 June 2025, a fee will be payable for submitting most planning permission appeals in Scotland.
Background
Proposals to charge fees for planning appeals are not new. The principle of appeal fees was part of the 2019 Planning Performance and Fees Consultation. Proposals were included in the Investing in Planning consultation in February 2024.
In Scotland, specified categories of planning permission appeals are decided by the councillors on the local review body (LRB) rather than by Scottish Government reporters (DPEA).
Separate Regulations have been made to prescribe the fees for appeals to DPEA and to LRBs. There is no indication from the Scottish Government whether they intend to publish guidance on the appeal fee provisions.
Fee payable
Fees will be payable for the following types of appeal, where notice of appeal is given on or after 9 June 2025:
- planning permission appeals
- advertisement consent
- certificate of lawfulness
- hazardous substances consent
The provisions for calculating the amount of fee payable are complex, including various full or partial exemptions. For some appeals, there is a single rate, eg. £143 for s.42 applications (variation of conditions); for others, formulae apply. Maximums include £35,712 for residential PPiPs and £71,424 for wind turbines.
The fee rates appear similar for DPEA and LRB appeals.
No fee will be payable for appeals against enforcement notices, or for appeals on listed building or conservation area consents.
Deemed refusals
No fee will be payable for an appeal against a deemed refusal of planning permission (but a fee is payable for a deemed refusal appeal for a certificate of lawfulness).
That was the position in the original consultation paper. No explanation was provided. The summary of responses indicates “there was disagreement about appeals against the non-determination of an application”.
The question of whether, or when, to submit a deemed refusal appeal can be tricky, as waiting a few months more to get a decision from the planning authority might be preferable to being locked into an appeal process which could take 6 months or more. But if there is even a small risk of permission being refused, it might be preferable to proceed with a deemed refusal appeal, and avoid having to pay an appeal fee which could be several thousand pounds.
Comment
Introducing appeal fees is controversial. After all, it’s about wanting to do something on your land, and having to pay the government a fee for deciding whether to give permission for that, after already paying a fee when the initial planning application was submitted.
There was some opposition to the introduction of appeal fees in the consultation responses, on the grounds it could act as a barrier to justice and investment.
There is no provision for the appeal fee to be refunded if the appeal is successful. The appeal fee can presumably form part of a claim for expenses in a DPEA appeal. However, those claims are rarely successful, because of the requirement to show unreasonable behaviour by the planning authority. The DPEA Annual Review 2023/24 shows 31 expenses claims were made against planning authorities, only 9 of which were successful (29%).
Rather than appeal and have to pay an additional fee, there is the option of amending the proposals and submitting a fresh application. That benefits from the “free go”, ie. no application fee is payable, if the application is for the same character or description of development on the same site, and submitted within 12 months of the application being refused.
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