Adur and Worthing Councils to increase charge for pre-application planning advice to reduce burden on tax-payer

Adur and Worthing Councils has made this decision to reduce the burden on the tax payer.

“As an example, we currently charge developers up to £3,000 for planning advice when they want to build more than 100 homes here,” the councils told residents on social media.

"From this month, we’ll increase the total we can charge on such an issue to at least £15,000, which reflects the huge amount of time we sometimes have to spend on that work.

“We’ll also be increasing by small amounts how much we will charge for pre-application advice on proposals such as home extensions as well.”

The councils said planning teams are ‘busy working on a range of applications’ every day – from ‘minor cases’ such as small extensions and loft conversions to ‘major developments featuring hundreds of new homes’.

"They also offer a pre-application advice service to help people to submit proposals that are less likely to be delayed or rejected, saving residents time and money,” the councils explained.

"Each case takes time to review and process but our fees for pre-application advice are currently too low to cover the cost, meaning every resident in Adur and Worthing is having to help pay for this service whether they use it or not.”

As part of their work to be more sustainable, the councils said ‘it’s only right’ that it should be those who use the pre-application service ‘who actually pay for it’.

This change, ‘in particular’, is aimed at major developers who are ‘working on multimillion-pound projects in our area’.

The councils added: “We’ve therefore decided to increase the amount we charge to provide pre-application planning advice to prevent us having to spend your money subsidising this service.”

You can find more information and a list of charges at www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/planning/applications/do-i-need-permission/