Planning application fees are set by the government. The amount you need to pay will depend on the type of application you are making.
Planning Portal have published information about how much a planning application costs on their website. You can also calculate your planning fee with their online tool.
There are some exemptions available, depending on the circumstances.
Planning application fees increase each April. Please see:
Our pre-application advice service is subject to separate pre-application charges.
If you withdraw a planning application, or it is refused, your fee will not be refunded.
Please note: If you (the applicant) are a parish or town council, we offer a 50% reduction to the fee for a discharge of conditions.
If you are applying for planning permission online via Planning Portal, you must make payment via their website, too.
Your application will not be released to us until you have paid the application fee to them.
You must also pay Planning Portal's administrative charge, if it applies.
Their administrative charge is currently £70 (including VAT) for applications with fees over £60.
Please use our online form to make a planning payment, for applications where you have applied via email or by post.
You will need your application reference number, which starts with either 'PP', 'DC/', or 'IAP'.
Please use our second online form if you have been asked to make an additional payment for a planning application, or where you have been asked to pay fees relating to documents that have been requested.
For planning applications submitted by post or email, you are able to pay by sending us a cheque.
Please note that if you pay by cheque, your payment will take longer to process and this might mean that your application cannot be validated within our published timescales.
Please send cheques to:
c/o Planning
Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils
Endeavour House
8 Russell Road
Ipswich
IP1 2BX
Please make cheques payable to either 'Babergh District Council' or 'Mid Suffolk District Council', as appropriate.
As we have two separate bank accounts, we can only accept cheques made payable to the Council that covers the address of the proposed works.
Please include your local authority planning application reference, which will have the format DC/YY/*****.
Please also provide a contact name, phone number, and the site address.
Please pay by bank transfer only if you cannot pay online, or by cheque.
If you have already tried to pay via those methods, and now need to pay via BACS, please call us on 0300 123 4000 (Option 5, Option 3).
The person that you speak to will give you your planning application reference. You will then need to quote this reference when you transfer the money to us.
Once you have made the bank transfer, please email planning@baberghmidsuffolk.gov.uk to notify us of payment.
If you do not do this, your planning application may not be registered within our published timescales.
Biodiversity Net Gain is an approach to development which makes sure that habitats for wildlife are left in a measurably better state than they were before the development.
Developers must deliver a Biodiversity Net Gain of 10%.
Householders, and other specified developments, are exempt from this requirement.
All offsite and significant onsite Biodiversity Net Gain is secured by a legal agreement. The following criteria confirms that a development is considered to be delivering significant onsite Biodiversity Net Gain:
We charge a fee to cover the monitoring costs.
Our fees, outlined in the table below, are applicable to the 2025/26 financial year. They will be reviewed annually, or as necessary.
| Category 1: Minor developments | Category 2: Major developments | Category 3: Large major developments | Category 4: Strategic developments |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
For phased developments, you can either pay the monitoring fee as a lump sum when the S106 decision is made, or you can pay in instalments (providing that the total fee is split across all phases, and each instalment is paid before each phase starts).
