Scottish Self Builders - planning fee hike for self builders

[jamiehamy]

To all Scotland based self builders - this is interesting - and very disappointing. As a self builder, it effectively says 'Self builders are a pain so we'll charge them more'. Maybe not the intention, but I think it's appalling - whilst paying an additional £350 more than a developer is not a lot in the grand scheme of things, I find it utterly perverse, not least because of the effort I put into my last two planning applications, which, by the planners own words, did far more than most other applications and made their lives much easier thanks to the extensive research and consultation I'd done to prove why it should be approved. 

 

I'll be responding to this - the more that respond as individuals, the better. 

 

https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-performance-fees-consultation/pages/6/

 

"The Scottish Government recognises that, whether a planning application is for a single residential unit or 10, a large proportion of the work that goes into making a decision on the application is dependent on the initial decision on the suitability of the site for housing. With this in mind we propose that the fee for a single house should more accurately reflect the processing and advertising costs associated with making a determination on the suitability of the site. The fee per unit for the first 10 units will be £600. Between 11 and 49 units (inclusive) the planning fee per unit will be £450. Housing developments containing 50 or more residential units would pay £23,550 with each additional unit charged at £250 per unit until a new fee maximum of £150,000 is reached."

[Triassic]

We all know Scottish self builders are loaded, so let’s milk them!

[eandg]

There's an argument that if you're going to support self-build you should reduce fees compared to for small developers etc. but the reality is that you get what you pay for and planning is under-resourced. There's new obligations on local authorities (through the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 and guidance on local housing strategies) which require them to at least establish a register and I'd imagine many will move towards providing pre-application advice to self-builders (where they don't currently) which would be very welcome. 

[scottishjohn]

and then they do not leak check all the houses --so not a fair comparison to self builder 

would it be unfair to suggest brown envelopes changing hands 

[scottishjohn]

37 minutes ago, eandg said:

but the reality is that you get what you pay for and planning is under-resourced.

I would dispute that --they seem to go out of the way to put up objections to one off sites telling us what our house should look like  --

and fall over backwards for big builders  who cut corners at every chance 

[eandg]

38 minutes ago, scottishjohn said:

I would dispute that --they seem to go out of the way to put up objections to one off sites telling us what our house should look like  --

and fall over backwards for big builders  who cut corners at every chance 

Big builders by and large build on sites that suit volume development and their standard house types, have few neighbours to object etc. etc. Reality is there's a whole lot more work per house for a single plot than there will be for a several hundred home plus development by a Barratt or Persimmon. 

[Ferdinand]

I'm conflicted here.

 

I certainly think it is reasonable that the applicant of whatever size should cover the costs of processing.

 

OTOH that inhibits some development.

 

I had the experience of having to write a 5 figure cheque in advance for the Council's costs of processing an Outline Application on a piece of inherited land suitable for a smallish housing estate - and the country is full of people with smallish 1 acre to 10 acre sites that need up front investments of 50k or more in the Planning Poker game to get them ready to develop, where selling with PP will be lifechanging, but they do not want to give away all the potential windfall by selling as agricultural or scrub.

 

I am more inclined to prefer a Planning System simplified in some ways to control costs.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Ferdinand

[joe90]

Not Scotland I know but our planning authority (the opposite end of the country) made me apply four times as they wanted to dictate what they wanted (although most of our neighbours were on our side) it took an appeal to the Secretary of State to not only get what we wanted but also for the appeal officer to tell our planners they were not abiding by their own policies and they wasted two years of my life and a lot of money (for them as well). We have not met one person yet who does not like our build and people tell us it suits the location well. ?

Edited February 11, 2020 by joe90

[ProDave]

What annoys me is they quote cost of advertising as one of the reasons for raising the fee.

 

Well I had to pay an additional £100 to pay for an advert in the Inverness Courier and Ross-Shire journal.  So if they increase the fee to cover advertising, will they also stop charging extra fees to cover advertising?