Pre-application planning fees

Level 1

Level of pre-application planning advice	Fixed fees
Householders: advice on house extensions	£180 + VAT = £216
Small businesses and developers: advice on building works and change of use where the floor area involved is up to 200 sq m	£180 + VAT = £216
Proposals for Local Community Uses (free for up to 200 sq m)	£166 + VAT = £199
Advertisements	£280 + VAT = £336
Telecommunication installations	£280 + VAT = £336
Listed building consent	£166 + VAT = £199
Trees and landscaping	£166 + VAT = £199
Works to trees covered by Tree Preservation Order or in a conservation area	£166 + VAT = £199

Meetings or follow up advice: charged at £104.60 + VAT per hour = £125.52
Target for response in writing: 4 weeks

Level 2

Business, commercial or other development of 201 sq m to 1,000 sq m or up to 9 dwellings.

Level of pre-application planning advice by size	Fixed fees
201 – 499 sq m	£462.50 + VAT = £555
500 – 1,000 sq m	£862.50 + VAT = £1,035
1 – 3 dwellings	£462.50 + VAT = £555
4 – 9 dwellings	£862.50 + VAT = £1,035

Meetings or follow up advice: charged at £130 + VAT per hour = £156.00
Target for response in writing: 6 weeks

Level 3

Level of pre-application planning advice	Fee for introductory meeting, scoping of the advice required and initial response
Small Major Developments comprising 10+ dwellings or over 1,000 sq m for other proposals	£3,750 + VAT = £4,500
Large Major Developments comprising 20+ dwellings or over 5,000 sq.m for other proposals	£3,750 + VAT = £4,500
Planning Performance Agreements if required for Major Development schemes	£3,750 + VAT = £4,500   For initial meeting, drafting and agreement of PPA. Additional costs for stages of the application will be agreed in PPA

Meetings or follow up: if additional time, meetings or planning performance agreements (PPA) required the fee will be by negotiation
Target for response in writing: by negotiation

Viability charges

The council will require the applicant to cover the council’s costs in assessing viability assessments. This includes both the internal management costs associated with the viability assessment and the cost of any external reports or advice required. The applicant should submit their assessment with the planning application or pre-application enquiry and send a copy to the council’s valuer at planning.viability@reading.gov.uk requesting a fee quote. The council’s internal costs, the viability management fee, will be applied at 20% of the net of VAT cost of the external viability review fee. The fees will need to be paid to the council’s valuer before assessment can proceed. The applicant, and their appointed agents, are expected to positively engage with the council and their external consultants, and provide accurate and transparent information and evidence, on an open book basis.  If the review and subsequent discussions become protracted, and further costs are incurred as part of this process, the applicant will also incur the extra costs associated with this.

All payments should be made via the council’s website as instructed by the council’s valuer.

Should the council agree that the proposed scheme cannot support full policy compliant affordable housing contributions, either on site or a payment in lieu of affordable housing, then further a review stage will be required to assess whether the scheme has been more profitable than at the initial viability assessment, this will be implemented via a s106 legal agreement. In order to discharge the s106 viability clause, the internal viability management fee will be payable (at the same rate as at the initial viability review plus indexation) to cover the Councils costs the review the information provided. If the information provided by the applicant is not sufficient, and further costs are incurred from external consultants, including but not limited to viability consultants, cost consultants, external valuers, these costs will also be paid by the applicant.

All pre-application planning fees are subject to VAT.