Council planning fees plunge

West Lothian Council has seen its income from planning fees plunge as the lockdown has closed down the building industry and caused hundreds to put plans on hold.

Planning applications, from housing estates to garages and dormers all have charges, with fees mostly relative to their size and complexity.

The council has seen the income its receives from planning applications almost halve in the year to September. And financial officers were keen to point out that the planning service fees don’t cover the costs of running the service.

A recent report said: “Planning and building warrant income is variable in that it is impacted by general economic and, in the current environment, specific Covid- 19 pandemic, circumstances such as customer confidence, interest rate changes, mortgage availability and employment levels .

“These in turn affect the housing market and the council’s associated planning and building warrant income.”

It added: “Service performance remains high with the majority of performance indicators within agreed targets and above the Scottish average. “One area where service delivery has been below target is major planning applications which have taken longer than anticipated, mainly as a result of the complex nature of these applications and the need to enter into related legal agreements to secure developer contributions towards infrastructure improvements. “A council spokesperson said afterwards: “During financial year 2019/ 20, we recorded an average quarterly fee income of £325,250. “This was reduced to £212,000 for the first quarter of 2020/21, and we have so far recorded fees of £ 163,000 for the second quarter up to September 13 2020.”