A Fee Set by Government, Not by Us or the Council
Once you know whether your project needs planning permission, the next question is almost always "how much will the application itself cost?" It's a fair question, and one that's easy to get wrong — planning fees are set nationally under the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) Regulations, reviewed annually, and every council in England charges exactly the same amount for the same type of application. Thanet and Canterbury can't discount it, and we can't either — it's paid directly to the council when the application is submitted, separate entirely from our quote for the building work itself.
The rates below are the current fees effective from April 2026. They do change most years, so treat this as a guide rather than gospel for anything you're planning further down the line — we always confirm the exact figure as part of your quote.
Householder Applications — What Most Extensions Cost
If your project needs a full householder application rather than qualifying for Permitted Development, the fee is straightforward:
- £548 — enlarging, improving or altering a single house (an extension, loft conversion, or similar)
- £272 — ancillary work within the garden, such as outbuildings, or new gates, fences and walls
That's the fee whether the extension is a modest single-storey addition or a full double-storey wraparound — size doesn't change a householder fee, only whether it needs planning permission in the first place.
If You Qualify for Permitted Development Instead
As we covered in our earlier article on Permitted Development vs Planning Permission, plenty of extensions never need a full application at all. Two routes are worth knowing the cost of:
- Prior Approval — £249, covering both the Larger Home Extension scheme and adding storeys to an existing house under Permitted Development
- Lawful Development Certificate — the same as the full application fee for confirming existing work is lawful, or half that fee for confirming a proposed project would be lawful before you start
Both are cheaper than a full application, which is one more reason it's worth checking your Permitted Development rights before assuming you need to apply in full.
Changing Something After You've Already Got Approval
It's common to need a small change once work is underway — different windows, a revised roofline, or a condition that needs discharging before you can start. The council has a fee for each:
- Non-material amendment — £46 for householder projects, £309 for anything else
- Discharge of conditions — £89 for householder projects, £309 for anything else
- Removing or varying a condition — £89 for householder, £608 for other non-major schemes, £2,076 for major development
These are worth budgeting for on any project with pre-commencement conditions attached, since almost every approval has at least one.
Bigger Projects Scale With Size
New build houses, larger conversions and commercial schemes are charged per dwelling or per 0.1 hectare rather than a flat fee — currently around £610 per dwelling for smaller schemes, rising in bands as the number of units or site area increases, up to a capped maximum in the hundreds of thousands for genuinely major developments. If you're at this scale, the fee calculation has enough moving parts (mixed use, phased sites, cross-boundary applications) that it's worth having it confirmed in writing rather than estimated — we do this as standard on any larger scheme we quote.
The Ones That Are Currently Free
A few application types have no fee at all right now: Listed Building Consent, a Certificate of Lawfulness for proposed works to a listed building, planning permission for demolition in a Conservation Area, work to trees under a Tree Preservation Order, and hedgerow removal notices. Good to know if a project touches a listed building or protected tree — the planning fee, at least, won't be the obstacle.
Our Advice
Planning fees are non-refundable and paid upfront, so an incomplete or incorrectly classified application can mean paying twice. On every project we quote across Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs and the wider Thanet area, we confirm which route applies and what the council fee will actually be before you commit to anything — so the only surprises left are good ones.