From the Inside Housing website this week- an alarming figure:
“Council taxpayers will spend £1bn covering local authorities’ costs of processing planning applications in the next five years, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.
Local authorities are unable to recover the full cost of handling applications through planning fees, which are set nationally.
New analysis of local government expenditure statistics by the LGA {local government association]has found that since fees were last increased in 2012, up to a third of planning applications have come at a cost to local authorities.
Planning departments process an average of 486,500 applications each year – meaning the total annual bill to council taxpayers is around £200m.”