← News · Published 28 August 2026
Planning application fees are going up — appeals still aren't.
A new national default fee schedule for planning applications in England is due to take effect on 8 December 2026, re-pricing most application types to around 90% of what it actually costs a council to process them. Householder applications rise by roughly 8%, with some other categories rising much more steeply.
The regulations are still in draft and need parliamentary approval before they're finalised, so the detail could still shift slightly. But whatever the exact figures land on, one thing stays constant: appealing a refusal to the Planning Inspectorate remains free — no appeal fee has been introduced.
What's changing, in brief
- ✓Householder applications rise by around 8%.
- ✓Discharge of conditions rises to £125 for householder cases — close to a 50% increase.
- ✓Prior approval applications that are currently free gain a new flat £310 charge.
- ✓Permission in principle moves to a flat £825 fee, a saving for larger sites previously charged per 0.1 hectare.
- ✓Some categories rise much further — certificates of appropriate alternative development more than triple, and major-development Section 73 applications rise by over 50%.
The new fees apply based on when an application is submitted, not when it's decided — anything submitted on or after 8 December 2026 falls under the new schedule, even if the council doesn't decide it until 2027.
The appeal route still costs nothing to use
Whatever happens to application fees, lodging an appeal against a refusal remains free — the Planning Inspectorate doesn't charge for it, and this round of changes doesn't introduce one. Combined with the shorter, 250-word appeal process introduced earlier this year, appealing a refusal is, if anything, becoming a more affordable option relative to preparing and submitting a brand new application from scratch.
If your application is refused, that's worth weighing up before you assume a fresh resubmission is the cheaper path.
Weigh up your options before you resubmit
If you've been refused, get a free review of whether an appeal makes more sense than a fresh application — no application fee, no Inspectorate charge, and our £690 fee only applies if your appeal succeeds.